On arrival at Varanasi airport assistance and transfer to hotel.

Later visit Sarnath - Buddha came to Sarnath to preach his message of the middle way to nirvana after he achieved enlightenment at Bodhgaya, and gave his famous first sermon at the deer park here in Isipatana. In the 3rd century BC, Emperor Ashoka erected magnificent stupas and monasteries here, as well as an engraved pillar. When Chinese traveller Xuan Zang dropped by in AD 640, Sarnath boasted a 100m-high stupa and 1500 monks living in large monasteries. However, soon after, Buddhism went into decline, and when Muslim invaders sacked the city in the late 12th century, Sarnath disappeared altogether. It was only ‘rediscovered’ by British archaeologists in 1835. Also visit Sarnath Museum (closed on Friday) and Stupa.

Banaras Hindu University - established in 1916 with over 30,000 students residing in campus, it is the largest residential university in Asia.