Stepwells as Cultural Texts: Decoding the Architectural Narratives of the Historical Baories/ Stepwells of Rajasthan

Abstract

Every work of art, whether it is a poem, a story, a painting, a song, a sculpture, an embroidered costume or a building is shaped by the culture where it is situated in spatial and temporal terms and it also plays a formative role in the cultural life of the society where it comes into existence. Hence many unspoken tales about the life and culture of the human civilization are hidden in every work of art. The present paper attempts to decode the architectural language of stepwell, a unique water management system which is known as ‘Baori’ or ‘Bawdi’ in Rajasthan. There are several stepwells scattered across the sand dunes of Rajasthan, to name a few Chand Baori, Raniji ki Baori, Hadirani ki Baori and Heera Panna Kund. All these Baories are known for the special patterns of the staircases to access the water of the well, carvings of the deities on their walls and altars to worship deities. Situating these historical stepwells in Foucauldian ‘Heterotopia’, the present paper attempts to decode them as cultural texts to trace how they function as intimate, lived spaces of memory, and cultural meaning, they are not just mere symmetrical arrangements of stones and stairs. How the architectural language of the Baories constitutes an ethical response to environmental requirements and communal needs in the arid regions? How the very intricate and symmetrical structure of these stepwells narrate the tales of the cultural heritage of Rajasthan? Addressing these issues, the present paper underscores the need to study the Baories of Rajasthan not only as architectural marvels or utilitarian structures built to manage the water crisis in arid regions but as deeply resonant cultural texts embedding within their architecture the intertwined narratives of survival, gender, religion and environmental ethics.