Place · stepwell · India
Adālaj Vāv
Also known as Adalaj, Rudabai stepwell, Adalaj ni Vav
A five-storey octagonal stepwell of 1499 built by Rudabai, queen of the Vaghela chief of Dandai Desh, after her husband was killed — carved throughout with Islamic geometry and Hindu and Jain motifs together, and designed so that the air at the bottom stays several degrees cooler than the surface.
- Function
- Water & infrastructure
- Patron dynasty
- Solanki / Chaulukya
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 23.167, 72.580
Worth knowing
The Sanskrit inscription says the Muslim ruler Mahmud Begada offered to marry her and complete the well, and that she threw herself into it when it was done rather than keep the bargain. Whether or not that happened, a woman commissioned it and the record says so.
Connections (2)
- Architectural modelRani ki Vav, Patan
Four hundred and thirty years separate Rani ki Vav from Adalaj, and the form is unchanged while the ornament has been completely rebuilt: Patan's walls carry Vishnu's avatars and apsaras in the Solanki manner, Adalaj's carry Islamic geometric panels, arabesque and trees in the Gujarat sultanate manner, on the same plan and to the same depth. The stepwell is the clearest single demonstration that a building type can outlive the religion of the people who commission it.
- Site withinAhmedabad / Karnāvatī / Āshāval
Adālaj Vāv lies within Ahmedabad — the two sites sit about 16 km apart, well inside the city's historical boundary and part of the same urban or peri-urban landscape. Adālaj Vāv is one of the specific sites that give Ahmedabad its layered character, and reads differently when seen as a stop within the larger city rather than as an isolated monument on an open map. The surrounding neighbourhoods, roads and other heritage ensembles belong to the same single urban fabric.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Adalaj Stepwell”. Hemachandra’s Dvyashrayakavya and the Prabandhachintamani; Jutta Jain-Neubauer, The Stepwells of Gujarat (1981).
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