मोक्षदायिनी काशी
Grace
of Kashi
Hindu tradition holds that Kashi, Shiva speaks the taraka mantra into the ear of the dying — said to grant moksha regardless of a person's past deeds, which is why Manikarnika has drawn the dying and their families for millennia.
Source: Eck, D. L., Banaras, City of Light, Columbia University Press, 1982.
अखण्ड अग्नि
Fire That
Never Goes Out
The cremation fires at Manikarnika are traditionally described as unbroken for thousands of years, tended by the Dom Raja community, whose hereditary right to supply the sacred flame is recorded in colonial-era gazetteers.
Source: Parry, J., Death in Banaras, Cambridge University Press, 1994.
मणिकर्णिका कुण्ड
Well of
the Jewelled Ear
Beside the ghat sits Manikarnika Kund, a stepped tank older than the Ganga's course beside it — legend holds Vishnu dug it with his discus, and Shiva's earring fell in as he watched, giving the ghat its name.
Source: Singh, R. P. B., Banaras, Making of India's Heritage City, Cambridge Scholars, 2009.
