Panchakki—the water mill

Malik Amber designed the city of Khirki, now Aurangabad, to support a large military. Supply of water was a critical component and he devised a system of canals, subterranean aqueducts and reservoirs to address it. Later, the Mughals simply scaled it up. This is one such site built by Turktaz Khan, a nobleman of Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah, the founder of Hyderabad State with allegiance to Mughals.
Literally translated to a water mill, Panchakki is a fine example of application of renewable energy to cater to every day needs of water storage, grinding grains and space conditioning in the medieval era. The architecture is such that water from a nearby stream is brought via an underground pipe to a reservoir and then made to fall on to the water mill cistern. In the process a large community hall used by travelers gets cooled too. Indeed, the fascinating part of this run-of-the-river legacy system lies in its multi-purpose nature. The remaining water is subsequently released back in to the river. Besides the water mill, the facility consists of a dargah, a mosque and a few other buildings. The site is open to visitors till 08:00 pm.
As with many Muslim legacies, this is a Wakf site too. Wakf denotes a philanthropic dedication of a property to religious or charitable purposes. While the donation itself is called Mushrut-Ul-Khidmat, the person making that donation is referred to as Wakf. Panchakki doubles up as the head office for the Maharashtra State Board of Wakf. You could walk in to this office to learn about other similar properties in the vicinity and try your luck with officials to understand the functioning of the board.