Central Hindu School, Kamachha

Tucked into the leafy Kamachha neighbourhood a short ride from the ghats, the Central Hindu School is one of Varanasi's most quietly consequential addresses — the physical cradle of what would become Banaras Hindu University.

• It began on 7 July 1898, when the Irish-born theosophist, educationist and future freedom fighter Dr Annie Besant opened the Central Hindu College in a rented house at Karnaghanta, with the English science graduate Dr Arthur Richardson as its first principal.
• Besant's idea was radical for its day: a modern, science-based education framed by Indian ethical and cultural values, an antidote to the missionary schools that then dominated.
• In March 1899 the young institution moved to a building at Kamachha, a gift from the reigning Kashi Naresh, Maharaja Prabhu Narayan Singh — the campus you can see today.
• The school's importance far outstrips its modest gates.
• In 1914 Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya persuaded Besant to hand the Central Hindu College to the society he was building; it was formally transferred in 1915 and became the founding nucleus of Banaras Hindu University, established in 1916.
• The Kamachha grounds still hold their historic bones: the long, high-ceilinged Sarga Hall, used for assemblies and examinations for well over a century; the Kashinath Trimbak Telang Library, established in 1912; and one of the largest playing fields in the Purvanchal region.
• A companion Central Hindu Girls School, founded in 1904, sits within the same educational cluster, underscoring Besant's early commitment to schooling for girls.
• Distinguished alumni have passed through these corridors, and the school remains a working CBSE institution overseen by BHU.
• A visit here is a heritage stroll rather than a ticketed monument tour.
• This is an active school, so there is no entry fee and no formal sightseeing circuit; the reward is in admiring the century-old colonial-era facade, the venerable trees and the sense of standing where an entire university was conceived.
• Come on a weekday morning when the campus is alive but calm, keep to the public edges unless you have permission to enter, and pair the stop with nearby Kamachha and Bhelupur lanes.
• Photograph the buildings, not the students, and always ask the gate staff before stepping inside.
• Vegetarian and alcohol-free travellers are on very comfortable ground in Kamachha, which is ringed by some of Varanasi's most trusted pure-vegetarian kitchens.
• Ksheer Sagar at nearby Sonarpura is a beloved pure-veg sweets-and-snacks house for rabri, kachori-sabzi and thalis, while a short hop toward Godowlia brings the legendary Kashi Chat Bhandar and the fixed-menu Keshari Restaurant into range.
• One local caution worth repeating: several roadside stalls in the old city sell thandai laced with bhang (cannabis), so always ask specifically for plain lassi or ordinary thandai.
• Stick to the named pure-veg venues below and you will eat superbly, meat- and alcohol-free, throughout your visit.