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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
There are also some stepwells in Delhi, one of which was built during Tughlak times called Ugrasen-ki-Bäolī (near today's connaught place), one built during the reigon of Iltutmish (1210-1236 A.D.) called Gandhak ki Bāoli (near Dargah qutb sahib) and a leter one of 1516 called Rajori-kī Bārī built by Daulatkhan, a nobleman of Sikandar Lodhi's region. Stepwell like monuments are also found in the fort of Agra - in the Diwan-i-am quarter and one in Fetehpur-sikri outside the main building complex on the western side. 12
A multiple entrance wells are situalted near Red Fort in New Delhi. This site has no title but was converted into a prison during the 1857 Indian Mutiny by the British Raj. It is said to have been the queen's bath at one time. It has three stone stairway approaches through elegant arches to a single well.13
Here, I have confined some unique stepwells (vāva) and Tanks (Kunda) of Gujarat and Rajasthan viz. Gujarat : Rāni-ni vāva-Patan (N.G.), Rudābai's vāva - Adalaj, Bai Hari's vāva-Ahmedabad; Śakti kunda-Akhaj, Surya Kunda-Modherā, Brahmakunda, Sihor. Rajasthan : Rāniji-ki-Bāori - Bundi, Neemrānā kī Bāori - Alwar, Pannā Meenā kunda-Amber, Chand Bāori-Kunda, Abānerī. Rāņi-nī vāva - Pațaņa
The step-well buily (in 1068 A. D.) in the auspices of the queen Udayamatī was known as the queen's step-well - 'Rāni-ni-vāva' - Patan (North Gujarat)
To the N.W. of Patan and not far from the remains of the embankment of the famous Sahasralinga lake, are the remains of the extent Rāni Vāva-once one of those beautiful step-wells of Gujarat.
When Burgess visited this vāva nothing of it was seen except a huge pit, in length, with a portion of the masonry of the well shaft (AANG P. III) at one end and the fragments of a pillar at the other. The pit sloped down from the latter to the former, where there was a pool of stagnent water. He says, "Judging to its original size by the distance from the well-shaft to the solitary pillar, and considering the amount of sculpture that must have been decorated the gallaries, the Rāni Vāva, when intact, must have been second to none in Gujarat. A part only of the west wall of the wellshaft now remains, from which we learn that the walls had been built of brick and faced with stone."
About the plan of the Vāva he remarks. "It is impossible now to say what the exact plan of this well must have been-wheather it had a single stair like that at Vāyad (AANG p. iv) or was cross shaped with three flights of steps as in the great well at Adālaj."14
In the barren featureless terrain, these sub-terranean stuctures with their ornate interior make a strong impact on the mind of the visitors. The traveller Arther malet visited Patan in the 1st half of the 19th century & prepared a drawing of queen's stepwell. Colonel James Tod in his 'travels in western India' wrote about the stepwell at Patan and reproduced Matet's drawing. In the letar half of 19th century Alexander
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2011 : y. 24, sis 3-8, viszi. 2006 – Hizé, 2004
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