The Venue

Varanasi also known as Banaras and Kashi situated on a bend of the sacred river Ganga, at the confluence of its two tributaries – the Varuna and the Assi – is the oldest living city in the world.

Mark Twain on a visit in 1896 put more pithily:

Banaras, he said, “is the older than history, older than tradition, older than legend and looks twice as old as all of them put together”

            In fact, veneration for Varanasi stems from the belief that Varanasi or Kashi is the    eternal abode of Shiva or Vishwanath. A belief referred to in the Brahmanas, Upanishad, the epics and the puranas. And since Vishwanath is the presiding deity of the city, life even history seems to revolve around the Vishwanath Temple.

            It was in Varanasi where the Budha preached his doctrine for the first time 25 centuries ago, where Mahavir propounded Jainism and Shankaracharya write his commentaries on Hinduism; where Patanjali, the Sanskrit grammarian worked and wrote the Mahabhashya; where Tulsidas wrote the Ram Charit Manas and Kabir preached amity between religions. The city, famous for Silk work, figures prominently on Indian Tourist map and is well connected by Air/train/road transport. It has direct airlines with Delhi by 6 flights and Mumbai by 2 flights a day and numerous overnight and day train connections from Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad, etc. Air links via Delhi are also available from Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Ahmedabad, etc.

            The Banaras Hindu University is located on the western bank of river Ganga with the area of the main campus as 1300 acres, well maintained roads, extensive greenery, a temple, an air strip and majestic buildings which are an architectural delight. It is about 10 kms from Varanasi Railway station, 38 kms from the Varanasi Airport. BHU enshrines within its precincts phenomenal range of faculties incorporating diverse disciplines of Sciences, Humanities, Social Sciences, Commerce, Law, Education, Visual Arts, performing Arts, Sanskrit Vidya Dharma Vigyan, Management, Medicine - Modern and Ayurveda, Engineering and Technology, Agriculture, Library Science, Journalism and a large number of foreign and Indian languages.