Ahmedabad - The Adalaj Step Well

A two-day business trip to Ahmedabad this week left me an afternoon free for some tourism yesterday. If I had known, I would have taken my camera, for I saw some incredible street scenes, which my phone camera was incapable of catching.

Ahmedabad is the largest city in Gujarat, a state bordering Pakistan. It used to be the state capital, before the seat of the government was moved to Ghandinagar, about 20 km North.

Already in April the temperature is high (37 degrees Celsius) but the air is extremely dry, which makes the heat bearable ... at least if you do not stay too long in the sun. In June-July, I am told, the temperature rises to 45.

Driving through Ahmedabad is going through a kaleidoscope of impressions and colours. The contrasts in the streets are amazing. Goats, dogs, donkeys, camels, cows roam around in the middle of a sea of people on foot, bikes, mopeds. A motorcycle can carry a whole family: the man drives and his wife seats in the back, holding one or two children between herself and her husband.

Gandhi was a Gujarati and Ahmedabad was his base for many years. He lived in an ashram in the city from 1918 to 1930. This ashram is now called the Satyagraha Ashram. Satyagraha means "non-violent civil disobedience". It is from this place that Gandhi started his historic walk to Dandi together with 79 Ashramites, vowing not to return till he achieved freedom for India.

This was my first stop in my tour of Ahmedabad yesterday. The place is full of Gandhi memorabilia and retraces in several rooms the various stages of Gandhi's life and his various deeds in defense of poor people and, ultimately, in his campaign to free India from the British Empire.

In one room in particular, there were statements made by several thinkers on this remarkable man and what he accomplished through his use of non violent civil disobedience. There was, however, a thoughtful comment by Bertrand Russell which pointed out the limits of non-violence. I do not remember the exact quote but it stated that the effectiveness of non-violence depends very much on the nature of the enemy, and that you have to understand this before you ask people to lie across a railroad track. Very true, I think. What worked against the British may not have worked against the armies of Hitler or Stalin.

ADALAJ STEP WELL

The high point of this quick tour was on the road from Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar: a step-well built in the late 15th century, a marvel of architecture and sculpture.

Gujarat is a very dry state. The purpose of this step-well was to collect and conserve water from the monsoon rains. This water would run down a system of stairways to a central well. But what an incredible work of art was built for such a utilitarian purpose!

A sign at the entrance stated the following:
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This step-well (VAV) was built in Samvat 1555 (1498 A.D.) by Ruda, wife of Vaghela Chief Virasimha. This is recorded in a Sanskrit inscription on a marble slab set into a niche in the first storey on the Eastern side.

The oblong step-well runs from South to North; entry to the VAV is from the South through stairs on three sides which descend into a spacious landing with an octagonal opening supported on eight pillars. At each of the four corners of the landing platform is a small room with an Oriel window.

From the landing platform the corridor begins with a gently descending staircase leading to the octagonal well-shaft on the North. The stepped corridor has a parapet wall at ground level.

The octagonal shaft is five storeyed; its upper four storeys are entered through spiral staircases on the Western and Eastern sides. The corridor railing around the octagonal shaft, pillars, pilasters, entablatures, lintels and other architectural orders are profusely decorated.

A panel showing nine planets (Navagrahas) is found over a door in the second storey on the Eastern side of the Octagonal shaft.

Among sculptures particular mention may be made of a king seated on a stool under a parasol with two Chauri bearers in attendance, erotic scenes, scenes showing churning of buttermilk, bhairava, female dancers and musicians, various birds and animals like Gaja-Sardula, symbolic representation of Mother Goddess, and medallions, half-medallions, scroll motifs evolving out of Kirttimukha, etc.
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Follow me in the discovery of this incredible well. There are many things I could not see because access to the back of the galleries was only possible if I had dared to walk on a narrow corniche and negotiate spikes installed on it to prevent access.














On top of the lintel in the picture below, you can see a little furry animal (looking very much like a chipmunk).