Suraj Kund (Samba Surya Kund)

Tucked away in the dense lanes just south of the Godowlia crossing, Suraj Kund — more properly the Samba Surya Kund — is one of the quietest and most storied of Kashi's sacred water tanks.

• Where the riverfront ghats roar with pilgrims and boatmen, this rectangular masonry kund sits in near-silence, ringed by old stone steps and overlooked by the small Samba Aditya temple.
• It is one of the twelve Aditya (sun-god) shrines of the Dwadash Aditya circuit, the constellation of Surya sites that pilgrims once threaded together across the old city, and it belongs to the oldest layer of Banaras devotion, when the sun was honoured at dawn worship, on pilgrimage, and as an icon in temples.
• The kund carries a tender origin legend from the Puranas.
• Samba, a son of Krishna, was cursed with a wasting skin affliction; on divine counsel he came to Kashi, dug this tank, and performed rigorous penance and worship of Surya until he was healed.
• The tank he dug became Samba Kund, and the presiding sun-form here came to be called Samba Aditya.
• The Kashi Khand records that a devotee who bathes here at sunrise on a Sunday and prays to Samba Aditya is freed of incurable disease — and so, for centuries, the ailing and the hopeful have come at first light.
• Today the site is looked after as part of Varanasi's pilgrimage heritage and has featured in civic efforts to clean and revive the city's neglected kunds, though it remains a modest, working neighbourhood shrine rather than a polished monument.
• For the vegetarian traveller, this pocket of the old city is a delight and poses no dietary worry at all — the surrounding Godowlia–Sonarpura belt is the classic pure-vegetarian heartland of Banaras.
• Within a short walk you have legendary meat-free institutions: Kashi Chat Bhandar for tamatar chaat and palak patta chaat, Ram Bhandar (since 1887) for kachori-sabzi and jalebi, and Ksheer Sagar in Sonarpura for spotless thalis and sweets.
• One honest caution native to Varanasi: several lassi and thandai stalls in the tourist lanes serve bhang (cannabis) thandai — always ask specifically for plain lassi or plain thandai so you are served the ordinary, intoxicant-free version.