Ram Nagar Fort Varanasi

The Ramnagar fort lies about 14 km. from Varanasi and is situated on the opposite bank of river Ganga. It is the ancestral home of the Maharaja of Banaras. Maharaja Balwant Singh built this fort-palace in the eighteenth century. The fort is built in red sandstone. The Ramnagar fort has a temple and a museum within the grounds and the temple is dedicated to Ved Vyasa, who wrote Mahabharata, the great Indian epic. Legends have it that Ved Vyasa stayed here for a brief period.

The Ramnagar fort houses a museum displaying the Royal collection which includes vintage Cars, Royal palkies, an armory of swords and old guns, ivory work and antique clocks. The Durga Temple and Chhinnamastika Temple are also Located at Ramnagar. A temple of Dakshin Mukhi Hanuman is there. Inside the giant walls of the Ramnagar fort-palace, there is a big clock. This clock not only displays year, month, week and day but also astronomical facts about the sun, moon and constellation of stars. An interesting array of ornate palanquins, gold-plated howdahs and weapons are some of the artifacts on display in the Ramnagar fort-palace museum.

Ramnagar Fort, the residential place of the King of Kashi and temple of the Ved Vyas, houses a museum known as the Vidya Mandir or Saraswati Bhawan Museum. The Museum and Darbar Hall at the Ramnagar Fort make the mirror image of a court of the ancient time. A variety of Royal collections like old guns, traditional cars, old armory, swords, old armored matchlocks, ornate hookahs, daggers, portraits of the Maharajas, black musical instruments traditional astronomical clocks, ivory work, gold and silver palki of the King, bejeweled sedan chairs, silver elephant saddles carved out of silver, jewelleries, furniture, old and traditional costumes (made up of kimkhwa silk) are collected in the museum.

Some religious writings with the attractively designed cover in the Mughal miniatures style are collected in the fort. Some of old documents, traces of the Mughal period are also available there. Antique pieces in the museum and the Ramlila celebration attract a huge crowd in the Ramnagar.