ABSTRACT
Water is important for man’s mundane needs; while in the Hindu tradition, water is one of the five prime elements and important for liberation and spiritual purification after death. Donation of memorial reservoirs came to be considered gifts of piety, Danadharma. In the sandy and dry region of Western India, an ingenious form of reservoir involving both excavation and construction, known as stepwells, developed, with long flights of steps leading down to a well, with one quadrant of the well opened up. Most stepwells have straight series of steps from the ground surface all the way to the well at the far end, but square or rectangular reservoirs or Kunda Vav with steps on three or all four sides were also excavated. In Hinduism, stepwells are always marked by sacrality, often having shrines associated with them, but stepwells are not temples in the proper sense of that term. Hundreds of stepwells were built, but the most ornate examples were the Ranki Vav at Patan, and the stepwells at Adalaj and Bai Harir’s.
