Part 2 - Why Rajasthan Built Cities Around Wells

When British officers began travelling through Rajasthan in the nineteenth century, they expected to find forts, palaces, and temples.

Instead, they found entire structures built below ground.

At places like Abhaneri, hundreds of stone steps descended deep into the earth. Some were larger than many buildings above them.

To modern eyes, they looked almost impossible.

Why would anyone invest so much effort in architecture that was largely hidden from view?

The answer was water.

For centuries, communities across western India faced a problem that remains familiar today: long dry seasons and unreliable rainfall.

Their solution was the stepwell.

In western India, stepwells became an essential response to hot, semi-arid conditions and unreliable rainfall, allowing communities to store monsoon water for use throughout the dry season. 

Known variously as baoris, baolis, vavs, or vapis, these structures collected monsoon water and kept it accessible throughout the long dry months of the year.

But they were far more than wells.

 Unlike an ordinary well, stepwells combined water storage, architecture, and public space in a single structure.

Many included pavilions, carved columns, resting platforms, and shaded chambers. Some descended several storeys below ground.

---

One of the most remarkable examples is Chand Baori at Abhaneri, Rajasthan.

  

Chand Baori, Abhaneri. Built between the 8th and 9th centuries, the stepwell contains around 3,500 steps arranged in a striking geometric pattern.

Built between the eighth and ninth centuries, Chand Baori descends roughly 20 metres and contains around 3,500 steps arranged in a striking geometric pattern. It remains one of the largest and deepest historic stepwells in India.

Early surveyors were impressed not only by its scale but also by its practicality.

As temperatures rose above ground, the lower levels remained noticeably cooler.

The deeper one descended, the more comfortable the environment became.

Long before mechanical air conditioning, builders had created spaces that worked with the climate rather than against it.

Modern studies have shown that stepwells benefited from thermal mass, shade, evaporative cooling, and underground temperature stability.

In simple terms, they stored both water and comfort.

Stepwells also served another purpose.

They became places where travellers rested, merchants paused, festivals were held, and communities gathered. In many towns, they functioned as both public infrastructure and social space.

What appears today as a dramatic architectural monument was once an essential part of everyday life.

---

What the British Got Right

Many early surveyors carefully documented stepwells through photographs, sketches, and measurements.

Without those records, several damaged or neglected structures would be far less understood today.

Their surveys preserved evidence of a building tradition that combined engineering, hydrology, and architecture in a single structure.

---

Why It Matters

Stepwells are often admired for their geometry.

But their real achievement was solving a practical problem.

They captured water, moderated temperature, and created usable public space in one design.

More than a century after British surveyors recorded them, architects are still studying the same principles under a different name:

Climate-responsive design.

---

Sources

• Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)
• Rajasthan State Archives
• Kailash Chandra Jain, Ancient Cities and Towns of Rajasthan (1972)
• Sharad Chandra, Steps to Water: Stepwells in India, Chitrolekha International Magazine on Art and Design, Vol. 5, No. 2 (2015)
• James Tod, Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan (Internet Archive)
• Jutta Jain-Neubauer, The Stepwells of Gujarat
• Morna Livingston, Steps to Water: The Ancient Stepwells of India
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre – Rani ki Vav