Kapal Mochan Tirtha

Tucked into the dense, workaday lanes of Kazzakpura in the north of the old city, Kapal Mochan Tirtha is one of Kashi's oldest and most quietly powerful water shrines — a sacred tank (kund) whose name literally means "release of the skull." It sits immediately beside the celebrated Laat Bhairav, a copper-sheathed stone pillar smeared with vermilion that the great French jeweller-traveller Jean-Baptiste Tavernier saw standing some thirty-five feet tall in the 1660s.

• According to the Kashi Khand of the Skanda Purana, when the fierce Bhairava wandered the earth carrying the skull of Brahma as penance for a great sin, he found release only on entering Kashi — and the skull finally dropped away at this very tirtha, giving the place its name.
• To pilgrims, this makes the tank a kshetra of atonement and ancestral liberation, a place to remember forebears and shed the weight of old wrongs.
• Unlike the thronged riverfront ghats, Kapal Mochan is a local, lived-in shrine rather than a polished tourist stop.
• The tank is modest and often still, its steps worn smooth by centuries of feet; the adjoining Bhairav shrine — open to the sky under a simple canopy — draws a steady trickle of neighbourhood devotees, especially on Kalabhairava Ashtami, through the sacred months of Shravan, Kartik and Magha, and around the Laat Bhairo festivities.
• It stands in a layered, mixed-heritage quarter near the railway line, and the surviving Hindu tirtha and its tank remain a distinct, active place of worship.
• Come for the sense of an unvarnished, deeply old Kashi that most visitors never reach — bring patience for the narrow approach and a local to point the way.
• The surrounding neighbourhood is unpretentious rather than manicured, so wear modest clothing, remove footwear near the shrine, and keep voices low around those at prayer.
• Photograph the tank and the copper pillar respectfully, and always ask before pointing a lens at worshippers.
• For vegetarian travellers this pocket of Varanasi is reassuringly easy: the whole city is overwhelmingly meat-free by temperament, and the fabled pure-vegetarian kitchens of Chowk and Godowlia lie four to five kilometres south.
• After an early-morning visit, ride down to Kashi Chat Bhandar in Godowlia for its legendary tamatar and palak chaat, queue at Ram Bhandar in Thatheri Bazar (serving since 1887) for kachori-sabzi and jalebi, or dip into Deena Chaat Bhandar at Bansphatak.
• A gentle caution unique to Banaras: the city's famous thandai and lassi are sometimes laced with bhang (cannabis), so at any lassi stall ask clearly for a plain, bhang-free glass.
• Otherwise, expect thoroughly satvik, egg-free, alcohol-free fare wherever you land.