82.5 degree longitude - the exact spot lies in Vindyachal near Varanasi

The Indian Standard Time is the time observed through out India and is calculated on the basis of the 82.5 degree longitude.This line passes through several major Indian cities, however the Vindhyachal town, just west of the town of Mirzapur near Varanasi in the state of Uttar Pradesh is most cited. The longitude difference between Vindhyachal and the United Kingdom's Royal Observatory at Greenwich translates to an exact time difference of 5 hours 30 minutes.

Vindhyachal as I have mentioned in one of my earlier posts is a pilgrimage town where millions of devotees from allover India gather to worship the mother goddess Vindhyavasini, an avatar of Shakti or Goddess Durga.During the Navratas, the Vindhyachal town is flooded with worshippers of goddess Shakti as Vindhyachal Devi is one of the 'Shakti Peeth's' where the goddess is believed to reside in one of her sevral forms.
The exact spot that denotes the 82.5 degree longitude lies at a distance of around two hundred meters west of the Amravati cross road in Vindhyachal on the Mirzapur -Allahabad road. There is a billboard at the spot that marks the unique location of the 82.5 degree.

The interesting part is that the same place i.e Vindhyachal(and not the same spot actually) has been used as a reference point since centuries for calculating time by Indians.The traditional Hindu calendar or the Panchang has always used Vindhyachal as areference point for time calculations.This is a remarkable proof of the development of astronomical sciences in ancient India.

There is also another interesting legend associated with the Shiva temple that lies close to the main pilgrimage site of Vindhyachal. Popular folklore has it that the Vindhyeshwar Mahadeva Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva is the site where the ten headed demon King, Ravana established a 'Shiva Linga' to worship Lord Shiva. Now Ravana as per the Hindu epic Mahabharata was a extremely learned and enlightened Shiva bhakta and had the most profound knowledge of almost all the branches of learning.And he is believed to have used the place as reference point for the standard time measurements during his rule. The temple is around a mile away from the now acknowledge and marked spot though. While there isn't any scientific evidence to prove the veracity of the above beliefs, the existence of the legend and the location of the temple at a place so close to the 82.5 degree longitude cannot be a sheer coincidence.