Stepwells & Water Architecture

Chittorgarh Fort

Gaumukh Kund

A deep sacred water reservoir carved into the cliff edge, fed continuously by a spring shaped naturally like a cow's mouth.

Patan

Rani ki Vav

A stepwell on the bank of the Saraswati at Patan, built in the eleventh century and attributed to Udayamati, queen of the Chaulukya king Bhima I. It silted over and was effectively lost until the 1940s, then excavated and restored by the Archaeological Survey of India in the 1980s — which is why the carving is as sharp as it is. Seven levels of stairs descend to the water, each lined with sculptural panels of Hindu deities: it was built as an inverted temple, a shrine you go down into rather than up. UNESCO listed it in 2014, and it is on the ₹100 note.

Bundi

Raniji-ki-Baori (Queens Stepwell)

Built in 1699 by Rani Nathavati Solanki, queen of Rao Raja Anirudh Singh, and about forty-six metres deep — a multi-storey stepwell with a place of worship on each level, carved brackets running down the sides, and a narrow four-pillared entrance under a high arched gate, with stone elephants facing each other in the corners. Bundi has dozens of stepwells and most are locked, dry or full of rubbish; this is the one kept open and maintained. Go in the morning, while the sun still reaches down the shaft — by afternoon the carving is in shadow and stops reading.

Ahmedabad

Adalaj Stepwell

An exquisitely carved five-storey stepwell on the city's outskirts.

Gujarat

Rani-ki-Vav (the Queen's Stepwell) at Patan