Adalaj: A Stepwell Blessed with a Queen's Undying Love

About twelve miles north of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, lies Adalaj Ni Vav, a 16th-century stepwell. Aside from being a utilitarian building, the stepwell was, and still is, an architectural wonder built on the foundation of a queen’s undying love for her people and her martyred husband.

Adalaj Stepwell from the top, Source: Wikimedia Commons

Water is inevitable for the existence of life on this planet. Unfortunately, not all areas of the earth are blessed with abundant sources of this life-sustaining liquid. Even in India, a country blessed with many rivers and lakes flowing across its mainland, water scarcity is prevalent in certain states, especially in the western side of the country.

Such arid areas, which are spread across Gujrat and Maharashtra, are home to several stepwells that facilitated the availability of water in medieval times. Stepwells, or wells with stairs, are magnificent pieces of architecture, typically consisting of multiple storeys from the ground level. These wells were used to harvest rainwater during monsoon and store it for everyday use during dry months. This is the story of one such alluring stepwell in Gujarat, locally known as Adalaj Ni Vav.

The ground floor of Adalaj Stepwell, Source: Wikimedia Commons

Like most stepwells of ancient and medieval India, the primary purpose of the Adalaj Stepwell was to provide potable water around the year to the residents of the area. That wasn’t, however, the only reason the stepwell was built.

Stepwells have been a precious part of the lives of people of historic India. Fetching water, being a daily routine, could have easily been dull but the architecture of the stepwells ensured that people gathered there could socialise while going on with their regular work.

Additionally, Adalaj, like many other stepwells, had resting areas between storeys, so that travellers from faraway lands could not only quench their thirst in the well but also take a break from their long journeys. Adalaj was also a designated spot for locals to perform rituals and ceremonies as part of their community culture.

Inside Adalaj Stepwell, Source: Wikimedia Commons

In medieval times, women were at the heart of stepwell construction. Most of these architectural gems were either ideated or managed by the women of the community and it could be any woman, from queens and princesses to courtesans and servants.

The main reason behind such deep involvement of women was that they believed that working towards building a water facility could fetch them high religious merits and even immortality. There were, of course, social reasons, one of which was that women built stepwells for themselves, as a place to call their own, a place to meet other women.

Adalaj, too, was built by a woman, the queen of the Dandai Desh area, which is present-day Gandhinagar in Gujarat. The queen’s tragic story is still revered as an enormous sacrifice and she is worshipped among the residents.

The legend, as found in an inscription on this 16th-century stepwell, states that Queen Rudabai, the wife of martyred king Raja Veer Singh, agreed to marry her husband’s killer, King Mahmud Begada, who had a liking for the widowed lady of the throne. Rudabai only had one condition. She would marry Begada only if he constructed a stepwell in Adalaj.

The new king acquiesced and the marvellous structure was built in a few decades. On the inauguration day, as Begada waited with bated breath to claim Rudabai as his own, the virtuous queen jumped into the well and drowned herself. She sacrificed her life in memory of her loving husband but, as befits a true ruler of the people, not before she ensured her subjects had enough water to drink.

Carvings on the walls of Adalaj Stepwell, Source: Wikimedia Commons

Adalaj Stepwell boasts of prime architectural brilliance based on the Solanki style, which was prevalent in Gujarat during medieval times. The Solanki style resembles the Rajasthani style in many aspects, such as intricately carved stones and trellis patterns. The carvings on the Adalaj stepwell, unsurprisingly, depict both Hindu and Islamic themes, reminiscent of the crossover between the Hindu queen’s ideation and the Islamic conqueror’s supervision.

Like most stepwells, Adalaj has a pit where monsoon water aggregates and another pit where the water is stored for daily consumption. Even today visitors can see the water accumulating on the ground floor of the stepwell. Due to the sandstone built, close-design halls, and innumerable walls and pillars, the water temperature was always a few degrees cooler than the ambient temperature outside the well, making it suitable for travellers to take a sip between their journeys.

Adalaj Stepwell during the light festival, Source: Wikimedia Commons

The carvings along the walls and pillars of Adalaj Ni Vav bear witness to the harmonious and vivacious lives of the people of that era. The exemplary art along the panels of the stepwell tells stories of how residents unitedly offered ceremonies around the well, celebrated many festivals, performed dance and music, and invited travellers to immerse themselves in the grandeur of the structure and the merriment of the local villagers.

A structure that blends in the ancient artistry of two major religions in the country, Hinduism and Islam, is a perfect example of how societies can acquire the best of both worlds and create an architectural masterpiece that visitors way into the future can happily feast their eyes on. Even today, visitors can only marvel at the wondrous carvings on the walls as they mentally orate the inscription that pays homage to the queen’s story, stating “This stepwell of Queen Rudabai will stand as long as there is sun and moon in the sky.”