Victoria Lautman
Victoria Lautman takes tips from drivers, villagers, and pores over old maps to find India's ancient and abandoned stepwells. In the following images, she discusses her journeys and the stepwells she has stumbled upon.
Victoria Lautman
"I went to India for the first time 30 years ago. I didn't know anything. I happened to go with architects. We went to a desert. The ground literally fell away, into this incredibly elaborate hole in the ground. It was one of the most shocking experiences of my life."
Victoria Lautman
"This is the first stepwell I saw and I couldn't forget it. The shock of looking down into architecture instead of up at it subverted everything I'd expected from a building. The dramatic contrasts of light & shade, the cool air, the telescoping views and hushed sounds...every sense was on alert. Who wouldn't remember that for decades?"
Victoria Lautman
"This is where I knew I had slipped over the line from 'enchanted' to 'obsessed.' Neemrana is very deep -- 9 stories -- and dangerously decrepit, but one of the most marvelous structures I've ever seen. Ever."
Victoria Lautman
"This is the largest, most grandiose, costliest and probably most impressive stepwell ever built. Last year it became an UNESCO World Heritage Site, thankfully, and it's literally impossible to try and describe it."
Victoria Lautman
"The scale and detailed sculptures -- hundreds of Hindu deities -- is just overwhelming."
Victoria Lautman
"It's magnificent, gorgeous, and utterly frightening all at the same time."
Victoria Lautman
"This impressive, ignored, disintegrating stepwell is in a small village about 15 minutes away from its famous sister, Rudabai vav in Adalaj, and yet no-one ever visits. It was built at the same time, most likely by the same queen, and while less showy and grand it's nevertheless beautiful and elegant, with sculptural niches climbing up the narrow walls. It's "protected" by the local government (even though chunks are falling from it and bonfires have been lit within) but easily accessible through an adjacent temple."
Victoria Lautman
"Chand Baori is one of the better known stepwells thanks to it's cameo appearance in several movies. But still, tourists generally miss the short detour off the road between Jaipur and Agra and if they realized it, they'd kick themselves. It's one of the oldest, deepest, most impressive wells or 'kund,' defined by the sculptural geometric steps on all four sides and steep funnel shape. It's impossible to take a bad photo of a kund..."
Picasa
"When I give lectures, the so-called Helical vav invariably causes gasps -- something about that sinuous spiral and severe simplicity is so compelling. Even more startling -- as with many stepwells -- is the subtlety of it's above-ground presence: just a low masonry wall. Lovely."
Victoria Lautman
"There are a number of really wonderful stepwells in and around Delhi, some just a few yards from main tourist attractions, and yet even local guides have no idea that they exist or how to find them. Rajon ki baoli is located in the Mehrauli archeological park, itself a magical place studded with tombs and ruins. It's deep, in good shape, still harvests water, and its many levels of "apartments make it such a fun place to explore."
Victoria Lautman
"It's not easy getting to this small stepwell in the fields outside the city of Narnaul, with its many spectacular Mughal monuments. But the dirt road eventually lead to pretty -- if overgrown -- stepwells, with its four chattris that come into view. What a peaceful spot in its day - I'm sorry this one's such a ruin."
Victoria Lautman
"The fort at Mandu has a number of stepwells, tanks, and sophisticated water-harvesting systems but none as beautiful as Ujala baoli. The picture doesn't show what an odd, asymmetrical structure it really is, or it's sadly dilapidated state."
Victoria Lautman
"It's so steep and in such terrible condition that Mertaniji looks as though it's weeping filthy tears - but it's also an enormous feat of engineering and architecture. An estimated 25% of stepwells were commissioned by women, and this is one of them -- another "protected", awe-inspiring monument that unfortunately has all sorts of garbage in it."
Victoria Lautman
"A farm family cares for this stepwell, using it as it was in past centuries: for drinking, washing, and irrigation. It's large scale, huge entry towers, and architectural details make it another of my favorites -- an unexpected treasure way out in the countryside."
Victoria Lautman
I always show this baoli, or stepwell, as an example and reminder of how a unique, awe-inspiring, formerly essential monument can be reduced to rubble. I had to climb on a roof to even see the extent of this marvel, one of the largest I've encountered, and which must have been an incredible sight hundreds of years ago. Now it's surrounded by buildings, used as a dump, and no-one has any idea it's there. It made me cry."
Victoria Lautman
"I'd read about Vikia Vav in Morna Livingston's book "Steps to Water" from 2002 and was determined to find it on a search mission in Gujarat. It was by far the most difficult to locate and get to. Even local villagers had no knowledge of it, seemingly, and I was eventually led to it along a dirt track by a sympathetic fellow on a motorcycle. (The road) had so many rocks that my driver lost a tire. It's (from the) late 13th century, in the middle of nowhere on a former trade route, and nearly destroyed by the horrific earthquake in Gujarat in 2001. But marvelous still."
Victoria Lautman
"This is another example of a kund, small but powerfully sculptural. The gradation of hues from pink to white to green (from algae) makes it one of the most colorful of all the stepwells I've visited, and it's a particular favorite."

Story highlights

One writer's "obsession" is finding India's ancient stepwells

Design allowed villagers to access water tables, some more than 100 ft deep

Stepwells were multi-purpose, besides a source for water they fulfilled social and religious needs

August 19 is World Photo Day

CNN  — 

Victoria Lautman’s travels sound like something straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. Armed with a humble little point-and-shoot camera (“Well, I’m sliding in horrible pits, I need to be able to hold it in my teeth”) the Chicago-based adventure-journalist travels across India hunting for ancient, unexplored ruins.

Lautman’s favorite pastime, or “obsession” as she calls it, is finding stepwells, large often cavernous wells in which water may be reached by descending a set of steps. Dating back as far as AD 600, these incredible architectural feats of design have been largely forgotten – until now.

Over the past four years, Lautman has visited over 120 stepwells. “In its heyday there were around 3,000 stepwells throughout India. Now, there are about 1,000 left,” she estimates.

Accessing India’s deep water tables

Stepwells were traditionally used throughout India to tap into the country’s deep water tables – and some, like the Chand Baori (baori, one of the Hindi words for well) in the western state of Rajasthan, run more than 100 feet into the ground.

“They proliferated in places where it was hard to get water, like deserts,” Lautman explains. Their designs – which differ widely across regions, are informed by varied environments.

Victoria Lautman
Chand Baori (in Rajasthan) is one of India's more famous stepwells. Lautman has visited over 120 of them.

“The shape and width, a lot of those determinations [for design] had to do with the quality of stone and soil. In some sandier places, like Gujarat, there are bridging elements in place to keep walls from collapsing, because the soil is loose,” Lautman observes.

Beyond a primary water source, stepwells were used as civic structures – they provided a respite from heat, a place to socialize, and in many cases – functioned as subterranean temples, with intricate carvings of deities.

These days, few stepwells are in use. The majority of them are derelict, filled with trash and abandoned. There are a few more known exceptions. Rani-ki-Vav (the Queen’s Stepwell) in Gujarat for example, was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2014.

But the majority of them have gone undocumented – which makes Lautman’s ability to trace them, even more unusual. She relies on a mix of research and word of mouth.  

Hunting for ancient stepwells

“Finding stuff, even with a map in India, is tough,” she says, of the difficulty of locating the ones that haven’t been researched.

“I usually ask drivers to ask locals because my Hindi is terrible. Then, you drive around in circles, sometimes for days, but eventually you’ll find a stepwell. Sometimes it’s unbelievably fantastic, sometimes you end up getting dropped off at a pit, with water in it.”

Picasa
Fewer of these round, helical valves have been found. Lautman says the wells she visits are often in the middle of nowhere.

Lautman quickly dispels any suggestion that she is a professional photographer. “It’s a miracle that the photos look the way they do. I have a good eye, being in the design and architecture world, and I can frame a photo. But I don’t know diddly-squat.”

The informal, slightly off-the-kilter shots are refreshing – conveying a sense of wonderment and this feeling that you too, have stumbled upon these sites.

Lautman is currently compiling research on the wells, and says she hopes her photos will help spread awareness of their precarious existence.

“There are hundreds of them, just crumbling to dust. My goal is to show people, tell as many people as I can, about these stepwells. People will start asking, ‘How do I go see them?’ When tourists start coming – then that’s when things will be preserved.”