Annapurna Devi Mandir, Varanasi

Sources agree that the temple was built in the early 18th century by Peshwa Baji Rao I. Amar Ujala and Navbharat Times give the year as 1729, as does Wikipedia; Incredible India gives 1725. In January 2025 Navbharat Times quoted the temple's mahant, Shankar Puri, saying that the temple was preparing for its first kumbhabhishekam (reconsecration) in about five decades, with a gold-plated finial for its 14-foot spire and, for the first time in its history, a procession of the goddess through the city in a silver palanquin.

As part of that work, Amar Ujala reported in December 2024 that layers of chemical red paint were being removed from the spire and the outer walls of the sanctum for the first time in about 50 years, revealing the pink Chunar sandstone beneath, and that a cow-dung based paint was to be used instead.

This temple should not be confused with an 18th-century Annapurna statue that had been taken to Canada in 1913 and was returned to India in 2021; Deccan Herald reported that it was installed in the Kashi Vishwanath Temple premises, not at the Annapurna Mandir.

Architecture and sacred features

Amar Ujala describes the temple as built in the Nagara style of north Indian architecture, of pink Chunar sandstone, with carved entrance arches and walls decorated with scenes from Hindu mythology, flowers and geometric patterns. The same report describes its plan as being in the form of a Shri Yantra.

There are two main images of the goddess. A brass image is open for daily darshan. The golden image shows Annapurna seated on a lotus, with a silver Shiva standing before her as a supplicant and golden images of Lakshmi and Bhudevi on either side, according to Navbharat Times and Amar Ujala.