Surajkund

Surajkund, 20th April 2012

Surajkund is just outside Delhi. Before you come to Surajkund, you can see the ruins of the Tughlaqabad fort and the walled tomb of Firuz Shah Tughlaq (14th century). Along a winding road through the severely degraded Aravalli hills, one comes to Surajkund as I did, decades after my last visit with the chance to stay for two nights in its vicinity.

It was after 5 p.m and the sky was grey, with a storm brewing and the pictures did not come out well. Anyway, Surajkund, or the Lake of the Sun, is an ancient reservoir dating back to the 10th century or maybe the 7th century, which had a Sun Temple alongside. The reservoir is semicircular with an amphitheater like stepped embankment. The natural catchment area is now almost completely destroyed due to environmental degradation and the reservoir fills up only during rains. 

  

One would like to think, as ancient lore has it, that the son of Krishna started his penance from here, to be continued in the other three ancient Sun temples at Kashmir, Konark and Dwarka but this places the Surajkund much earlier in history. Stone age relics have been found in nearby vicinities and carved stones have also been recovered from the reservoir bed ..

  

Attempts have been made for sprucing up the place, there being a dam nearby and a reserve forest, and the peacock can be seen in the wild. The one that I saw, perhaps 30 meters up, was truly huge! 

Fortunately, there were quite a few watering holes nearby, the Sunbird for instance ..

On that happy note, without further ado, let me wish you goodnight!