Yesterday, we went to see a friend who lives in another town. We could have gone there by the motorway; it would have been much faster. But as the weather was so nice, we decided to go by the scenic route taking smaller roads.
We were passing through a pretty village called Stoke Row. Suddenly we saw a small signboard which said "Ishree Bagh" and a few yards further there was another sign "Maharajah's Well". Intriguing eh! I reversed my car and parked near the sign.
We walked to the Well which looked very impressive with a grand multicoloured gilded dome. Inscribed on the dome was "his highness maharaja of Benares".
Under the dome there was a mechanized green pulley system to withdraw water from the deep well. On the top of this device was a statue of a golden elephant!
There used be severe scarcity of clean water in this hilly area. In 1860 Maharaja of Benares Ishree Pershad came to know about the plight of the poor villagers and decided to donate money to dig a deep well in this village. It took about a year to dig this 368 feet deep well and it was opened on 24th of May,1864 on Queen Victoria's birthday. Adjacent to it an orchard was designed and named as Ishree Bagh after the Maharaja. There was also a Machchli pokhra and Prabhu Teela named after his adopted son and heir Prabhu Narayan.
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| Prabhu Teela |
Maharaja of Benaras also generously paid for the upkeep of the whole complex over many decades.
Of course, the well is not in use anymore but the well and the Bagh are well maintained by the Heritage fund UK.
Maharaja Ishree Pershad was also a great poet-scholar, he established the Sanskrit College in Benaras. He was also the mentor of Babu Bhartendu Harischandra who is known as father of modern Hindi. (From Wikipedia)
Bibha and I immensely enjoyed this tranquil lovely spot and its unique history. We had a cup of nice coffee and tasty cake at the cafe com Farm shop in the village and continued our journey.
GLOSSARY
Benaras: now known as Varanasi, a holy city in India.
Bagh: an orchard
Ishree Pershad: Ishwari Prashad Narayan Singh
Machchli pokhra: Fishpond
Teela: a mound
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| Well-Keeper's Hut and Ishree Bagh |
