Delhi Sights - Agrasen ki Baoli

Since we were doing lunch at Connaught Place, Suresh, our Man Friday suggested we stop by at Agrasen ki Baoli, which was hardly a kilometre away. Having missed the opportunity to see the baoli thanks to an earlier incident involving Vasu, Abhinay, a closed gate and the security men guarding the baoli on an early November morning 2023, I signed up. And so we landed up in the little lane off Haileys Road in less than 10 minutes.

Surprisingly, there was no entry fee and i wondered what all that hullaballoo was about then. It appeared that a tourist bus had stopped by and there were a bunch of foreigners there along with some locals.

 What we see as we enter is a beautiful stepwell which is 60 m long and 15 m wide. It's dated around 14th century, and is presumed to be built by the Agarwal community in honour of their ancestor Agrasen. 108 steps go down towards the water (it's a stepwell) and the sides show that that it is built on three levels with beautiful arches carved in at each level. One can walk along the sides of the narrow well but it's restricted now.

Since visitors were not allowed to go beyond a point towards the water, everyone sat on the steps and stared ahead as if waiting for a performance (they say is haunted). We sat for a while, took a couple of pictures, realised no performance was coming, and then headed out.

At the top there was an interesting structure, again, cordoned off and out of bounds. From what i gathered this whale backed structure is a mosque with three openings and motifs that appear to have Hindu influences. Several movies were shot here in the baoli. 

Its not a patch on Rani ki Vaav, nor even on Adlaj stepwell, but it has its own beauty. Glad to have seen this minus the drama of our last visit.