Sankuldhara Kund

Tucked away in the residential lanes of Khojwa and Bhelupura, a short walk from the busier ghats, Sankuldhara Kund (locally Sankuldhara Pokhra) is one of the many sacred water tanks that once formed the spiritual and civic backbone of old Kashi.

• Long before piped water and municipal supply, Varanasi was a city of kunds, kupas and pokhras — tanks and wells where residents bathed, drew water, and performed daily rites.
• Sankuldhara belongs to this older, quieter Kashi: a rectangular masonry tank ringed by stepped ghats and small shrines, remembered in the Kashi Khanda of the Skanda Purana as one of the tirthas marking the sacred territory of the Kedar Khanda, and included in scholar Rana P.B.
• Singh's surveys of the city's revered sacred water pools.
• Unlike the thronged riverfront, Sankuldhara is a neighbourhood shrine-pond.
• Its name is generally read from the Sanskrit — dhara meaning a flow or stream — and it sits within walking distance of the Dwarkadhish (Dwarikadhish) temple in Bhelupura.
• The tank has been restored in recent years, its steps re-laid and surrounds cleaned, so on a calm morning you can watch local devotees offering prayers, children feeding fish, and the reflection of surrounding rooftops on still water.
• It is not a monumental attraction and there is no ticket booth; the reward here is atmosphere — a slice of everyday devotional Banaras away from touts and crowds.
• Photographers come at first light for soft reflections; heritage walkers add it to a loop of the city's lesser-known kunds such as Durga Kund and Lakshmi Kund.
• Sankuldhara sits in one of the most vegetarian-friendly quarters of Varanasi, which makes it easy to pair a visit with a pure-veg meal.
• The Sonarpura–Bhelupura stretch is dotted with sattvik sweet shops and thali houses: Ksheer Sagar on Sonarpura is a beloved pure-vegetarian institution for milk sweets and simple thalis about a kilometre away, while Godowlia's Kashi Chat Bhandar and Keshari Restaurant serve legendary chaat and Banarasi vegetarian thalis a short auto-ride off.
• One caution unique to Kashi: many roadside "thandai" and lassi stalls near the ghats add bhang (cannabis).
• Vegetarian travellers who simply want a cooling drink should ask clearly for plain lassi or plain thandai without bhang, and stick to the established pure-veg shops listed here.