Religious fervour gripped this city of Lord Shiva on the first Monday in the  auspicious month of Shrawan when heavy rush of people was seen not only at one of the dwadasa jyotirlingas Kashi Vishwanath Temple but also at several other famous temples located in the city as well as its outskirts. Maximum rush was seen at Markandey Mahadev on Varanasi-Ghazipur highway located near the confluence of rivers Ganga and Gomti at Kaithi. This temple is known as parallel to jyotirlingas.

Besides, there was heavy rush of devotees at all famous temples including Mahamritunjya Mahadev (Daranagar), Gauri Kedareshwar (Kedar Ghat), Jogeshwar Mahadev (Ishwargangi), Omkleshwar Mahadev (Chittanpura), Teel Bhandeshwar (Pandey Haveli), Sarangnath Mahadev (Sarnath) and many others in the city areas. In the outskirts, a heavy rush of devotees was also seen at all the Shiva temples located on Panchkoshi Marg including Karmdeshwar Mahadev, Bhim Chandi, Rameshwar Mahadev, Paach Pandev and Kapildhara. Apart from these famous temples, heavy rush of devotees was also seen at Vishwanath temple in Banaras Hindu University (BHU) premises and Shool Tankeshwar Mahadev and scores of all others as the city is famous for having the replicas of all the dwadasa jyotirlingas.

Meanwhile, various social organisations served the devotees and kanwariyas by providing them drinking water, refreshment and other facilities on the occasion. The wardens and volunteers of Civil Defence were deployed in Shiva temples on the first Monday for security arrangements and assistance to the visitors. There was a huge crowd of visitors in the Sarangnath Mahadev Temple in Sarnath so the volunteers of the Civil Defense remained deployed there with promptness under the leadership of divisional warden Sanjay Kumar Rai. Arvind Kumar Vishwakarma, Ajay Srivastava, Ayan Bose, Vijay Kumar, Rajesh Srivastava, Sachchidanand Devvanshi and other volunteers were engaged in security arrangements at the temple.

Yadav Bandhus take out procession: Maintaining their nine decades old tradition, the Yadav Bandhus offered jalabhishek at nine leading Shiv temples including Kashi Vishwanath Temple on the occasion of first Monday in the auspicious month of Shrawan. Rush was seen in the procession where the participants were also seen dancing on the beat of traditional instruments. Even during the corona pandemic period, they had maintained tradition with just a participation of a few in the procession carrying flags of Chandravanshi Gop Seva Samiti.

However, like last year, hundreds of participants were seen in the procession carrying Gangajal (sacred water of holy river Ganga). After carrying sacred water of river Ganga at Kedar Ghat, the Yadav Bandhus first visited Gauri Kedareshwar. After that they reached Teel Bhandeshwar (Pandey Haveli) and Sheetla Mata (Dashaswamedh Ghat) and offered prayers there.

Then after visiting Aadleshar Mahadev, they reached Kashi Vishwanath Temple and offered prayers. For the procession, special security and other arrangements were made. Continuing their procession ahead, the Yadav Bandhus reached Maha Mrityunjaya Mahadev and then they offered prayers at Trilochan Mahadev and Omkleshwar Mahadev. They ended their pilgrimage journey at Laat Bhairav. However, many of them also reached Sarangnath Mahadev (Sarnath) where they concluded their journey.

The Yadav Bandhus started their traditional procession in 1932 by five five friends of the samaj when the country faced an acute drought but after offering prayers at different temples, the areas had experienced three days of good rains and since then they are maintaining this tradition. The procession was led by samiti chief Lalji Yadav and attended by Ayushman Yadav Chandravanshi, Vinay Yadav, Abhishek Yadav, Manoj Yadav and SharadYadav and many others.