हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Mankameshwar Temple, Lucknow

The oldest Shiva temple of Lucknow, on the bank of the Gomti, which Lucknow holds was founded by Lakshmana, after whom the city was once called Lakshmanpur. Its Sawan Mondays bring queues down to the river.

Built: Shiva shrine on the left bank of the Gomti, held to be founded by Lakshmana; present buildings much renewedWhere: Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow, Daliganj)Deity: Bhagwan Shiva as Mankameshwar, fulfiller of wishes26.87° N, 80.92° E
Photo: MAYURSEVAK77 · CC BY-SA 4.0

01Lakshmana’s Shiva

Lucknow’s tradition says that Lakshmana, after leaving Sita in the forest near Bithoor at Shri Ram’s command, stopped on the Gomti and worshipped Shiva here, and that the town of Lakshmanpur grew around the place. The Lakshman Tila nearby carries the same memory. The Shivling of Mankameshwar is black stone, worshipped by the name of the One who fulfils what the mind longs for. The temple is now under the care of a women’s line of mahants, unusual among Shiva temples of the north.

02The Gomti aarti

Since the 2010s the temple has held an evening aarti on its ghat on the Gomti, in the manner of the Ganga aarti of Kashi and Haridwar, and Lucknow comes down to the river for it. Sawan, Mahashivaratri and the Mondays of the year are the great days; in Sawan the kanwariyas bring Gomti water to the Shivling. The ghat was rebuilt with the riverfront. Bel leaves, milk and Gomti water are the offerings, and on Mahashivaratri the queues begin before dawn.

Visiting

Daliganj, on the Gomti near the Hanuman Setu bridge. The evening aarti on the ghat is the time to come.

Nearby

The Residency, LucknowRuined
Company rule and the war of 1857

The Residency, Lucknow

The compound of the British Resident at Lucknow, where the British garrison was besieged by the forces of Awadh from 30 June to November 1857. Its shot-scarred ruins have been kept as they were left.

KakoriStanding
Renaissance and the struggle for Swaraj

Kakori

The town near Lucknow where, on 9 August 1925, revolutionaries of the Hindustan Republican Association stopped a train and took the government treasury it carried. Four of them, Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Rajendra Lahiri and Roshan Singh, were hanged for it in December 1927.

Chandrika Devi Temple, LucknowStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Chandrika Devi Temple, Lucknow

A Devi temple on the bank of the Gomti at Bakshi Ka Talab, north of Lucknow, where the Devi is held to have appeared in the hollow of an old neem tree. The new-moon nights and Navratri bring the city out to her.

NaimisharanyaStanding
Vedic Rishis and the Itihasa

Naimisharanya

The forest on the Gomti where Suta told the Puranas and the Mahabharata to Shaunaka and the assembled rishis. Without Naimisharanya, the Puranas say, there would be no Puranas to read.