"The Kashi Khanda has Shiva himself declaring: There is no linga equal to that of Vishwanatha. There is no tirtha other than Manikarnika. There is no splendid penance grove anywhere else on a par with my Anandavana. The whole of Varanasi is full of tirthas. Its very name is Tirtha of all Tirthas. There itself is the highly sacred Manikarnika, the very ground of my happiness. From the site which is my royal palace [the main temple], the city extends in between the north and the east, to the left is 300 hands (up to Harischandreshwara) and to the right it is 200 hands (up to Ganga Keshava). In Ganga, Manikarnika extends to five hundred hands north to south. It is the very essence of the three worlds. It is the basic support of the great soul. Those who resort to it lie in my heart."