By Hemang Desai
The Tribune, May 15 2015
Stepwells were built to collect rain water during seasonal monsoons. Primarily these structures were utilitarian. Over the period, they evolved a significant architectural style that was composite, with embellishment and exquisite carvings.
The step-wells constructed all over northern India in the middle ages and right till the modern period are a repository of knowledge about water collection, storage and distribution in water starved areas. In Gujarat, this tradition of constructing a stepwell was raised to a stunning architectural art that stands today on the world stage of architectural heritage. Read more…
(Image: The Adalaj stepwell is at once a celebration and a tribute to water as well as a record of the society in which it was built. Photo: Cyrus Mobedjee, courtesty of The Tribune)