Bajirao Ghat

Bajirao Ghat is one of Varanasi's quieter riverfront landings, a place where the theatre of the Ganga slows to a murmur. Built by the Maratha Peshwa Bajirao I in 1735 and forming a continuation of the neighbouring Lala Mishra Ghat, it was conceived on a grand scale — but the sheer weight of its masonry is said to have caused the great platform to settle and topple under itself, so the ambitious plan was never fully realised.

• The result, centuries on, is a ghat of half-finished façades and broad, worn steps that carry a distinctly unhurried, lived-in character.
• It sits within the historic Maratha stretch of the riverfront, a reminder of how the Peshwas and the Scindias of Gwalior poured patronage into Kashi far from their Deccan homeland.
• The ghat's story did not end with Bajirao.
• It was renovated in 1807 by Lakshman Bala of Gwalior, whose intervention gave the site a second life and, in the process, the tangle of alternate names it still carries locally.
• The Peshwa is also credited with the Dattatreyeshwar temple here, revered especially by Marathi pilgrims, while several of the tall buildings crowding the stone terraces once served as dharmshalas sheltering wandering hermits and spiritual travellers.
• Just along the stone embankment stands one of Varanasi's most photographed landmarks — the leaning Ratneshwar Mahadev temple, whose garbhagriha spends much of the year submerged and whose pronounced tilt draws photographers at every water level.
• For most visitors, Bajirao Ghat is a stop on a slow ghat-to-ghat walk or a dawn boat ride rather than a destination in itself, and that is precisely its appeal.
• Come at sunrise, when the light rakes gold across the crumbling stonework and the leaning temple emerges from mist, and you will often have the steps largely to yourself while Dashashwamedh, a short stroll or boat-hop south, heaves with pilgrims.
• Sit on the upper terrace, watch the boats and the bathers, and let the older, gentler rhythm of Banaras reveal itself.
• Vegetarian travellers are wonderfully at home here, as they are across Kashi — the whole city leans satvik and the old lanes behind the ghat are a treasury of pure-vegetarian food.
• A short walk toward Thatheri Bazar brings you to Ram Bhandar, pure-veg since 1887 and famous for its kachori-sabzi and syrup-heavy jalebi, while Rajbandhu in Kachori Gali and Kashi Chat Bhandar near Godowlia serve immaculate chaat and sweets without a trace of egg or meat.
• One caution worth remembering along the riverfront: several lassi and thandai stalls in Varanasi lace their drinks with bhang (cannabis) — always ask explicitly for a plain, bhang-free lassi or thandai before you order.