Well, well, well: Meet the artist documenting stepwells around India

Stepwells in the shapes of swords and keys; others that look like giant works of origami art basking in the sun… Rashmi Ghosh, a chartered accountant from Pune, has stepwells on her mind a lot of the time, she says, laughing. “But that’s only because there are so many, in such a variety of shapes, materials and places.”

Since 2022, she has been documenting them in photographs, drone footage and paintings (she is an artist at heart, she says, and has painted since she was a child), intrigued by the ways in which these distinctly Indian structures seem to mirror works of art from around the world.
Some look Escher-esque, she says, the steps seemingly blending into one another, folding over, overlapping. Others seem to loop around themselves in endless swirls, like the Penrose stairs (the “impossible staircase”, believed to be impossible to build).
“My fascination with stepwells began during a visit to Naktya Ravlyachi Vihir in Karad, Maharashtra, in 2022,” says Ghosh, 57. “Gazing into this man-made canyon, I was captivated by the intricate network of steps, columns, and platforms leading into the earth.”
She began to research the heritage structures, which are often 100 ft deep and were built in arid areas as a way to harvest and store rainwater. She has so far visited and documented 40 of them across Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi.
These include one of the oldest surviving stepwells in the country: the 9th century Chand Baori in Rajasthan’s Abhaneri village, which served as the setting for the escape of Christian Bale’s Batman in The Dark Knight Rises (2012).
By capturing the stepwells in mixed media, she says, “I hope to create awareness about their beauty, and the need to restore and conserve them.”
As part of this effort, her work was displayed as part of an exhibition on stepwells in Pune this year, with a second show held in the same city in August.
Ghosh now plans to expand the purview of her project, with a book.
The vav factor
There are an estimated 3,000 stepwells in India, “and any effort to document, promote and create awareness about them is not just welcome but of utmost importance, particularly in today’s climate crisis era,” says Mini Menon, co-founder and editor of Live History India / Peepul Tree Stories, a digital platform documenting India’s history and heritage.
“Stepwells represent the deep understanding we have had of our land and of the need to conserve and manage water,” she adds. “They constitute fascinating evidence of how well communities can and once did respect and manage water. Many are being lost, and have been lost. There isn’t enough documentation of what remains.”
Among the treasures Ghosh has documented so far is Ghumtachi Vihir in Talegaon Dabhade, Maharashtra, which has unusual indentations that give it a shape somewhat like a key.
There is also the stepwell of Dategad, a deep, curved sliver that takes the shape of a sword, cut into rock within the Dategad fort near Satara. “Crafted in laterite stone, this one is considered by historians to be further proof of the ancient engineering and architectural ingenuity of the Marathas,” Ghosh says.
Some stepwells are nothing like a stepwell should be, and this is what makes the 16th-century helical one in Champaner, Gujarat, Ghosh’s favourite. She used jute strings to represent its spiral shape, in her artwork on the structure.
Its unique curved lines weren’t just an attempt to stand out, in a place once known as The City of a Thousand Wells. “The spiral design is an extremely efficient way to harvest water. The steps also make it much easier to access the water, no matter how low the levels drop,” she says.
As part of her project, Ghosh speaks to local historians and refers to state government data to document differences in architecture and use of materials. Geopolitical shifts become evident as some structures, for instance, combine elements of Islamic design with Hindu temple architecture. (Traditional stepwells from early Hindu kingdoms typically made space for worship, idols and small temples.)
An elaborate stepwell was an effective gesture of good governance and a status symbol, and one can see this reflected in the lavish designs commissioned by ambitious rulers such as Mahmud Shah (r. 1458-1511) of the Gujarat Sultanate.
“There is a beautiful helical stepwell in Walur in the Parbhani district of Maharashtra that I have not visited yet. I hope to see it soon, and add many more to the archive,” Ghosh says.
Her obsession has given new direction to her life, she adds, after she lost her husband and her parents between 2018 and 2021. Now, with her son grown, she sees this archiving as part of her purpose.
“These beautiful structures have given me a new outlook, taken me to new places to meet new people,” Ghosh says, “and left me with a sense of wonder at our great ancient culture and heritage.”