Stepwells

A thousand years ago, in the driest regions of north-western India, communities relied on a remarkable piece of engineering to survive the long dry season: the stepwell. These structures did far more than supply water for drinking, washing and irrigation — they also became social and spiritual hubs for the villages that built them.

Found mainly in the modern states of Gujarat and Rajasthan, stepwells descend from ground level down to an underground water source, usually an aquifer that recedes as the dry season wears on. A set of stone steps leads down to the water, so that when the water table is high only a short walk is needed, while during drought a much longer descent is required to reach the surface.

Some stepwells are simple, open pits lined with steps on every side. Others are far more elaborate, with covered pavilions that sheltered visitors from the fierce heat, carved pillars and several storeys of stepped passages leading down to the water. Many are richly decorated with stone carvings depicting daily life, dance and combat, turning a purely practical structure into a work of art.

Over the centuries, thousands of these wells were built, but most have since fallen out of use. Groundwater has increasingly been diverted for industrial purposes, and a prolonged drought — eight years long, in southern Rajasthan between 1996 and 2004 — left many stepwells dry and neglected. In recent years, however, several important examples have been restored, and further conservation work is now planned.

One of the best-preserved examples, known as Rani Ki Vav, is found in the city of Patan, where it was constructed in the late eleventh century by royal decree. Silted up by a flood some two centuries later, it lay buried until restoration began in the 1960s. Today it stands more than 20 metres deep and is decorated with as many as 500 carved figures — and remains in excellent condition despite a powerful earthquake in 2001.

Another striking example, Surya Kund, was built in 1026 beside a temple dedicated to the sun. Despite its name, it looks more like a tank than a well: steps rise on all four sides to form a striking geometric pattern, and rows of small carved shrines are set into the terraces between the flights of steps.

In the town of Bundi, a stepwell called Raniji Ki Baori was built in 1699 and is renowned for its intricately carved monument; it was one of twenty-one such wells commissioned in the area by the queen after whom it is named.

Older still is Chand Baori, dated to around 850 AD, whose zigzagging steps take visitors down eleven storeys to the bottom. On one side, covered verandas which provide a view of the steps overlook the well, adding to its dramatic appearance.

Neemrana Ki Baori, built around 1700, remains in public use today; of its several levels, the last two lie underwater, reachable only when the water table is at its highest.

Elsewhere in the region, other notable stepwells combine religious and practical functions, sitting beside temples and serving as a place of worship as well as a water source. Several of the oldest surviving examples, built well over a thousand years ago, descend more than ten storeys below ground level in a dramatic zigzag pattern of steps.

Today, thanks to renewed conservation efforts, growing numbers of visitors travel to north-western India specifically to see these remarkable structures — a reminder both of the ingenuity of the communities that built them, and of the enduring importance of water in a dry landscape.