Agam Kuan

Agam Kuan is an ancient well in Patna, close to the Kumhrar excavations, thought to be around 2,200 years old and linked by legend to Emperor Ashoka before his turn to Buddhism. Its name means the unfathomable well, from a story that Ashoka failed to drain it. Other tales say he used it as a torture chamber, that fire once rose from it, and that a Jain monk, Sudarshana, thrown in by King Chand, floated up seated on a lotus.

A roofed structure was built over the well in Akbar's time, and eight arched openings look down onto the water. The upper shaft is brick, and the lower part is lined with wooden rings. The well belongs to a temple complex of the goddess Sitaladevi, and devotees drop coins and flowers into it and seek her blessing before weddings.