Bindu Madhav Temple, (Varanasi)

The Bindu Madhav temple holds a slender, whitewashed spire that rises above the stone ghats along the Ganges. While the original structure dated back to antiquity, the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb ordered its destruction in the seventeenth century, replacing it with a mosque. The local devotees moved the sacred deity of Lord Vishnu to this smaller, current location nearby to preserve their traditions. A fragment of the original temple's ornate pillar remains embedded in the mosque wall, holding centuries of conflict in its stone.