The religious fervour gripped this entire city of Lord Shiva on the occasion of seventh Monday as this year, due to ‘adhimas’ (extra month), the auspicious Shravan is of two months long in which there will be eight Mondays. Amidst tight security arrangements in view of ongoing archaeological survey in Gyanvapi premises on the court’s order, lakhs of devotees including thousands of saffron-clad kanwariyas offered jalabhishek as one of the Dwadasa Jyotirlingas Kashi Vishwanath Temple (KVT). Besides, a good number of devotees also went to Panchkoshi Parikarma Yatra as due to ‘adhimas’, its religious importance has been increased. A heavy rush of devotees was seen at all the Shiva temples located on Panchkoshi Marg including Karmdeshwar Mahadev, Bhim Chandi, Rameshwar Mahadev, Panch Pandava and Kapildhara.
Not only this, the entire city and its outskirts were echoed with the slogans of ‘Har Har Mahadev’ and ‘Bol Bom’. Heavy rush of devotees was also seen at Markandey Mahadev Temple located near Varanasi-Ghazipur highway about 25 kms from here near the confluence of rivers Ganga and Gomti at Kaithi village apart from all famous Shiva temples including Mahamritunjya Mahadev (Daranagar), Gauri Kedareshwar (Kedar Ghat), Jogeshar Mahadev (Ishwargangi), Omkleshwar Mahadev (Chittanpura), Teel Bhandeshwar (Pandey Haveli), Sarangnath Mahadev (Sarnath) and many others in the city areas. Apart from these famous temples, rush of devotees was also seen at Vishwanath temple in Banaras Hindu University (BHU) premises and Shool Tankeshwar Mahadev and scores of all others as the city is famous for having the replicas of all the Dwadasa Jyotirlingas.
On this Monday, the devotees saw the shringar of Lord Vishanath in form of Ardhnarishwar at KVT as in the last six Mondays, the Almighty was decorated in Chal Pratima, Gauri Shankar, Amrit Varsha, Bhagirathi, Parvati and Shankar Parvati Ganesh Swaroop (form). Right from the wee hours, there were long lines of devotees from Dashaswamedh ghat via Godowlia side and Maidagin. Though the lever of Ganga started receding but despite this, the devotees faced inconvenience to take holy dip as the river is still flowing above the normal level.
In view of the heavy rush, elaborate security arrangements were made and no vehicles were allowed to move between Godowlia and Maidagin throughout the day. To maintain law and order, the devotees were checked at many places through metal detectors. Senior administrative and police officers were present there to keep watch on the stock of situation in KVC premises.
All the activities were also watched through various CCTV cameras. To avoid congregation the devotees were asked to move towards Gyanvapi only through barricading and Rapid Action Force (RAF), para-military and PAC jawans were deployed both inside and outside of the premises.