Book review: The Vanishing Stepwells of India – ancient feats of engineering documented
Victoria Lautman travelled through the wastelands of western India to document ancient water-harvesting systems – brilliant examples of ancient engineering, now largely forgotten
The Vanishing Stepwells of India
by Victoria Lautman
Merrell Publishers
4/5 stars
The cover of Victoria Lautman’s book The Vanishing Stepwells of India carries a striking shot of the Mahila Bagh ka Jhalra, a stepwell hidden in plain sight in Jodhpur, one of India’s most popular tourist destinations. Locals and tourists alike walk past this every day, mostly without a clue that an engineering marvel lies in their midst.
In different parts of the country, they are variously known as baoli, bawdi, vav, kalyani or pushkarani. Today, they stand as not just proof of sophisticated water-harvesting systems but also brilliant examples of ancient architecture. Over time, their use as community spaces grew, and along with it, detail to carving and ornamentation.
Many have been demolished or fallen into disrepair – and even among those which have survived, few are in the public eye. So what prompted a journalist from the US to spend more than five years travelling through the wastelands of western India, finding, photographing and documenting more than 80 stepwells for a book?
Lautman investigates the past and present of the stepwells she features. While readers get a tantalising glimpse of their former glory, there is no whitewashing the dereliction of some of these structures. The stunning images speak for themselves, lushly illustrating each page.
The descriptions are redolent of Lautman’s often chatty and sometimes dejected voice; an occasional story about how she came across the stepwell, its known history, the architecture as it would have been then and now.
Shining a light on these ancient stepwells hopefully will make the authorities take notice – as a first step, clean them up for tourists, and then reconsider their relevance amid the drought conditions now affecting India.