Varanasi has produced a number of well-known political leaders, poets, revolutionaries, classical dancers, and several other personalities from other spheres. Our list of famous people from Varanasi includes Lal Bahadur Shastri, Kabir, Rani Lakshmibai, Birju Maharaj, and many others.
Pandit Ravi Shankar
Pandit Ravi Shankar was born on 7 April 1920 in Varanasi. He was a contemporary Indian musician and composer. He was a master in the instrument Sitar. He worked as a composer and create music for Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray. He worked as a music director of All India Radio in New Delhi from 1949 to 1956. He became an upper chamber member of the Parliament of India from 1986 to 1992. Pandit Ravi Shankar was awarded the Bharat Ratna and got three Grammy Awards in 1999 for India’s highest civilian honour. He continued performing till 2000 with his daughter Anoushka.
Bismillah Khan
Ustad Bismillah Khan was a great Indian shehnai maestro of Banaras and awarded with the Bharat Ratna in the year 2001 being the third classical musician. Bharat Ratna is the uppermost national honour in India. He got fame worldwide for performing the shehnai for more than eight decades.
Pandit Gudai Maharaj
Pandit Gudai Maharaj, an Indian tabla Samrat, was born on 20th July in the year 1921 in the Kabir Chaura, Varanasi, UP and died in May 1994 at his Kabir Chaura residence. Pandit Gudai Maharaj (also famous by the name Pandit Samta Prasad) was a renowned Indian classical musician and tabla player and related to the Benares Gharana of the Varanasi.
Pandit Kishan Maharaj
Pandit Kishan Maharaj, a famous Indian tabla player, born on 3rd September 1923 in the Kabir Chaura, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. He was born at the propitious Hindu festival day named Sri Krishna Janamashtami in the family related to professional music. Kishan Maharaj has passed away recently at his 84 on 4th May 2008 in the Khajuri near Varanasi. He belonged to the Benares Gharana and had dedicated his life to Hindustani classical music.
Girija Devi
Girija Devi was born in 1929 in Varanasi India. She is an Indian classical singer from Banaras Gharana.
Birju Maharaj
Indian dancer Birju Maharaj is a master of the Kalka-Bindadin Gharana of Kathak dance, a leading exponent of the dance form. Born in the house of a prominent Kathak dancer, Jagannath Maharaj, the young Briju Maharaj was destined to follow in his father’s footsteps and make a name for himself as one of the foremost dancers in the genre, in India.
Munshi Premchand
Munshi Premchand, Hindustani literature (Upanyas Samrat) and Indian writer (novel writer, story writer, and dramatist), was born in the year 1880 on the 31st of July in the Lemhi village (near Varanasi). He is a famous writer of the early 20th century. He left us on the 8th of October in 1936 after serving people his great writings.
Bharatendu Harishchandra
Bharatendu Harishchandra, the father of modern Hindi literature and the Hindi theatre, was born in Benares on 9th September in the year 1850. After serving a lot for modern Hindi literature for 35 years, he died on 6th January in the year 1885. He was a recognized poet for his great works and renowned as one of the supreme Hindi writers.
Jaishankar Prasad
Jaishankar Prasad, a most celebrated personality related to modern Hindi literature and Hindi theatre, was born on 30th January in the year 1889 and died on 14th January in the year 1937. He was a great Indian poet, novelist and dramatist, born in the simple madheshiya Teli Vaisya family of the Varanasi, UP, India.
Sant Ravidas Ji
Shri Guru Sant Ravidas Ji was a great Saint, philosopher, poet, social reformer, and follower of God in India during the 15th century. He was one of the most famous and leading stars of the nirguna sampradaya (sant parampara) and was one of the prominent leaders of the North Indian Bhakti movement. He had given a variety of spiritual and social messages through his great writings of poetry to his lovers, followers, and peoples of the society to reform their minds and show their boundless love towards God.
Tulsidas Ji
Tulsidas (1497–1623), also known as Goswami Tulsidas, was a Ramanandi Vaishnava saint and poet, renowned for his devotion to the deity Rama. He wrote several popular works in Sanskrit and Awadhi but is best known as the author of the epic Ramcharitmanas, a retelling of the Sanskrit Ramayana based on Rama’s life in the vernacular Awadhi.
Tulsidas spent most of his life in the city of Varanasi and Ayodhya. The Tulsi Ghat on the Ganges River in Varanasi is named after him. He founded the Sankatmochan Temple dedicated to Lord Hanuman in Varanasi, believed to stand at the place where he had the sight of the deity. Tulsidas started the Ramlila plays, a folk-theatre adaption of the Ramayana.
Tailang Swami
Trailanga Swami (also called Tailang Swami or Telang Swami) was a great Hindu yogi who lived in Varanasi. He was famous for his divine powers and regarded as a renowned statue of the Bengal. There are many stories behind him about his spiritual and yogic powers. He lived a long life around 300 years and resided in Varanasi for approximately 150 years. It is believed that Trailanga Swami was an incarnation of Lord Shiva and referred to as the “The walking Lord Shiva of Varanasi”. He was born in Holia at Vizianagaram of Andhra Pradesh.
Kinaram Baba
Aghoracharya Baba Kinaram was born on the Aghor Chaturdashi in the Bhadrapad in 1601 A.D at the Ramgarh village of the Chandauli district near Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh state of India. It is believed that after birth he had started to cry after three days of his birth by the blessings of the chief Goddess of Aghora, the Hinglaj Mata. Keenaram is believed to be the originator of the Aghori sect by some sources. He was considered to be the incarnation of Lord Shiva.
Kabir Das
Kabir Das, a mystical poet and great Saint of India, was born in the year 1440 and died in 1518. Kabir Panth is a huge religious community that identifies Kabir as the originator of the Sant Mat sects. The members of Kabir Panth are known as the Kabir panties who had extended all over the north and central India. Some of the great writings of the Kabir Das are Bijak, Kabir Granthawali, Anurag Sagar, Sakhi Granth, etc. It is clearly not known about his birth but it is noted that he was raised by a very poor Muslim weavers family. He was very spiritual and became a great Sadhu. He got fame all over the world because of his influential traditions and culture. It is considered that he got all his spiritual training from his Guru named, Ramananda, in his early childhood.
Annie Besant
Annie Besant was born on1st of October in 1847 to Emily Morris and William Wood in London, U.K. and died on 20th of September in 1933 in Madras, India. She was a famous British socialist, rights activist of women, Theosophist, orator, writer as well as a supporter of the Irish and Indian self-rule.
Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya
Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya was born in the year 1861 and died in 1946. He was a great Indian educationist, freedom fighter and founder of Banaras Hindu University (BHU). Award: Bharat Ratna in 2014.
Rani Lakshmibai
Rani Lakshmibai, famously known as ‘Jhansi Ki Rani’, was born in Varanasi in 1828. She was one of the leading warriors in India’s First War of Independence, which was fought in 1857. Her struggles in life started at the age of four when her mother passed away. Thereafter she was raised solely by her father along with other soon-to-be revolutionaries and she grew to be an independent, courageous girl. When she was just twenty-four-years old, her husband, the Maharaja of Jhansi died but she didn’t lose her courage and took over his responsibilities.
Source: varanasi.org.in, Wikipedia & thefamouspeople.in