Karmdeshwar Mahadev Mandir

There's something almost magical about a temple that survived centuries of invasions while everything around it crumbled. Karmdeshwar Mahadev Mandir (also spelled Kardameshwar) in Kandwa is exactly that — a 6th–7th century Gupta-era temple that somehow escaped the destruction wrought by Aurangzeb's armies in 1669, simply because it was hidden deep inside a dense forest that soldiers didn't dare enter. This is the first halt (padav) of the sacred Panchakroshi Yatra — an 80-km pilgrimage circuit around Varanasi that devotees have walked for millennia. The temple sits beside the Kardam Kund, a serene rectangular pond built in the mid-18th century by Rani Bhavani of Bengal, who lived in Banaras for six years and patronized many water pools and temples.