Lakshmi Kund

Tucked into the tangled lanes of the Luxa–Sidhgiri Bagh quarter, roughly a kilometre inland from the riverfront crush of Dashashwamedh, Lakshmi Kund is one of Kashi's quieter sacred tanks — a rectangular stone-stepped pool that most visitors to Varanasi never find.

• It belongs to a family of kunds (temple ponds) that once fed the spiritual and physical life of the old city, and the Kashi Khand, the Puranic text that maps the sacred geography of Kashi, names this as the abode of Mahalakshmi, goddess of wealth and wellbeing.
• Local tradition holds that Lord Shiva entrusted the city's water bodies to sixty-four yoginis, and that the Mayuri Yogini was set to guard Lakshmi Kund.
• For pilgrims the kund is inseparable from the adjoining Mahalakshmi (Mahalakshmi Gauri) temple, described in the Kashi Khand as a powerful Shakti seat, where the goddess is worshipped alongside forms of Kali and Saraswati.
• The temple's rhythm follows the goddess.
• Fridays draw the biggest local crowds, and the tank comes truly alive across the sixteen-day Mahalakshmi vrat that culminates around Sharad Purnima / Kojagari, when women keep a fast for the prosperity and long life of their families and the little shrine is dressed in lamps and marigold.
• Navratri and Diwali are the other high points, when the lanes fill with devotees and the water is ringed with flickering diyas.
• Come on an ordinary weekday morning, though, and you will likely have the place almost to yourself: worn steps, a handful of resident priests, ash-marked walls, and the low murmur of the old neighbourhood — an unvarnished, intimate slice of Banaras that photographs beautifully in soft early light.
• For vegetarian travellers, this pocket of Kashi is a joy — the whole old-city belt around Godowlia and Chowk is overwhelmingly meat-free and built on classic Banarasi snacking.
• A ten-minute walk brings you to legendary pure-vegetarian counters: Kashi Chat Bhandar on Godowlia for tamatar and palak chaat, Keshari Restaurant for a full South-Indian and thali meal, Ram Bhandar in Thatheri Bazar (established 1887) for kachori-sabzi and jalebi, and Rajbandhu in Kachori Gali for old-school sweets.
• One caution unique to Varanasi: many roadside 'thandai' and lassi stalls quietly sell bhang (cannabis) versions, so always ask specifically for plain lassi or plain thandai and choose a clearly pure-veg, family-run shop.