निरंजनी घाट

Niranjani Ghat rests in quiet proximity to its ascetic neighbor, Mahanirvani, and carries the same aura of renunciation — but with a gentler intensity. It is named after the Niranjani Akhara, a revered Shaivite monastic order whose very name — niranjan — means "stainless", "untainted", or "without illusion."

There exists the temple of Kartikeya in the compound of the Niranjani Akhara, the only in Varanasi, a divinity known as the son of Shiva and military commander of the God’s army.

It was originally part of the Chet Singh Ghat before being gifted to the Naga saints. It is home to the ferocious Naga ascetics of the Niranjani Akhada. These Nagas and the gosains of this akhada are the same warriors who fought against the armies of the East India Company, along with the armies of Shuja ud-Daula. It is said that ‘perhaps Shuja’s most feared crack troops were a large force of 6,000 dreadlocked Hindu Naga Sadhus, who fought mainly on

foot with clubs, swords and arrows, ash-painted but entirely naked, under their own muchfeared Gossain leaders, the brothers Anupgiri and Umraogiri.’