Rani-ki-Vav, or the ‘queen’s stepwell’, in Gujarat’s Patan city is an architectural marvel so famous that it made it to the new ₹100 currency note last year. This 11th century subterranean water storage system happens to also be a World Heritage Site. But Rani-ki-Vav is a fortunate exception. Scattered around Gujarat are stepwells that are also centuries old, steeped in socio-cultural significance, and architecturally breathtaking, but anonymous at best and in woeful disrepair at worst.
Sevasi Vav on the outskirts of Vadodara is more than 500 years old. It is seven-storeyed and its intricate design is barely visible through the poorly maintained facade. I meet 65-year-old Dinesh Patel who is well-known in the neighbourhood for having taken it upon himself to clean up the vav.
“Until I was 10, the water reached the fourth storey. All of us would collect drinking water from here,” says Patel. “Now, a third of this 110-feet-deep vav is filled with garbage. It has become a dump.” The pillars on which the structure stands bear delicate designs, of deities, elephants, floral motifs. But the neglect is apparent and the base of one of the main pillars looks in need of urgent repair. “If this pillar gives away, the vav can be partially destroyed,” says Patel.
Patel does what he can. He sweeps the stepwell every day. A shrine on the third floor draws devotees who also try to keep it clean, he says. But for the most part, this vav is neglected. And this is the story of most stepwells in Gujarat. There were once thousands of stepwells here, especially in the arid areas where they were sources of life-saving potable water. Many of them were built on ancient trade routes. They were also used to irrigate crops.
Time capsules
The earliest stepwells can be found in Saurashtra, and date back to the 4th or 5th century CE, says Ramjibhai Savalia, director of B.J. Institute of Learning & Research, Ahmedabad, who has written books on stepwells. “But the form got its full artistic voice during the 10th and 15th centuries, when artisans of the Solanki and post-Solanki era infused art forms of that time into subterranean shrines.” The stepwells are nothing short of ‘time capsules’ of their era, offering a glimpse into architecture, religious practices, and cultural life.
Rani-ki-Vav
Also fascinating is the connection with women. In her book Her Space, Her Story: Exploring the Stepwells of Gujarat , author Purnima Mehta Bhatt says that of the several hundred stepwells excavated so far, “25% were built by women — queens, royalty, wives of merchants, ordinary women, courtesans, servants — who hoped for religious recognition or to attain immortality through the gift of water”. Rani-ki-Vav, for instance, was built by a queen.
Stepwells were considered ‘women’s spaces’, where women came not just to fill their pots, but also lingered to talk uninhibitedly with other women, away from the public eye.
Vadodara-based artist Kakoli Sen picked up on this thread and curated a show where the vav was personified. The idea, she says, is to let a vav tell its own story. “The show in Sevasi Vav, for example, had a dance performance and a 15-minute narration, in which ‘she’ talks about the time women spent there, the shared secrets, getting away from the male gaze. It immediately breathed life into the vav.”
Sen has done a similar show in Navlakhi Vav, also in Vadodara, with light and sound.
While there is no official figure on the number of stepwells in Gujarat — many are already destroyed or encroached upon — Savalia says there could be 175 of major significance. “Rudabai in Adalaj near Gandhinagar, like Rani-ki-Vav, also has much ornamentation. At Junagadh, Adi-Kadi Vav is built from the rocks of the Girnar mountain. The Bai Harir stepwell in Ahmedabad is octagonal and reflects the medieval Sultanate architecture,” he says.
Raising awareness
The upkeep of the stepwells is the responsibility of the State archaeology department (the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) looks after the stepwells in Patan and Adalaj, and the archaeology department has over 20 stepwells in its care) and a majority “require urgent attention, repair and renovation,” says Savalia. He and his team have helped restore the 15th century Sapa Vav, among others, with their own resources.
Sevasi Vav
Gandhinagar-based Kapil Thakar took it upon himself to clean several stepwells, particularly in north Gujarat. “My thesis, during my masters in history and archaeology, was on stepwells. I realised that although they had so much historical significance, there was little public awareness.”
After Thakar completed his masters in 2007, he and his friends started an NGO, called Historical and Cultural Research Centre.
The group started with awareness drives and cleaned stepwells in Patan, Ambaji, Mehsana, Palanpur, and other little- known places.
Six years ago, they started a magazine, Atulya Vasav (Incredible Heritage). Thakar organised meetings, where heritage lovers could get together at different stepwells, brooms and brushes in hand, clean it and also discuss ways to conserve it. The NGO has ‘adopted’ the 400-year-old Uvarsad Vav in Gandhinagar.
“We are now planning an Interpretation Centre in Uvarsad, where tourists can get information on any stepwell in this region. It will hopefully bring more attention to the structures and help with their restoration,” says Thakar.
Stepwells lost their role as sources of drinking water during the British Raj, and more so when borewells came in. Cleaned, they can still be catchment areas, but even otherwise, they have too much historical, cultural, social and architectural value to be allowed to crumble.
The author is a Gujarat-based freelance journalist
