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    Baolis: Delhi Heritage Top 10
    Baolis: Delhi Heritage Top 10
    Baolis: Delhi Heritage Top 10
    Ebook221 pages1 hour

    Baolis: Delhi Heritage Top 10

    By Vikramjit Singh Rooprai

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Delhi Heritage Top 10 series is a comprehensive guide to Delhi’s heritage icons and architectural gems. The first volume in the series delves into the fascinating history and the great significance of forgotten, subterranean, manmade water structures, commonly known as baolis or stepwells. The book walks us through the top ten baolis, with two special mentions. Besides giving a vivid description of the functioning and revival of the baolis, the book also focuses on the social importance of each structure. The work is an outcome of a five-year-long research from various archives, and contains historic as well as modern photographs along with architectural drawings.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNiyogi
    Release dateAug 6, 2019
    ISBN9789389136111
    Baolis: Delhi Heritage Top 10

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      Book preview

      Baolis - Vikramjit Singh Rooprai

      Delhi Heritage: Top 10 Baoli s

      2

      Vikramjit Singh Rooprai

      VIKRAMJIT SINGH ROOPRAI

      Foreword by Sohail Hashmi

      3

      Delhi Heritage: Top 10 Baoli s Published by

      Block D, Building No. 77,

      Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-I,

      New Delhi-110 020, INDIA

      Tel: 91-11-26816301, 26818960

      Email: [email protected]

      Website: www.niyogibooksindia.com

      Text © Vikramjit Singh Rooprai

      Drawings and illustrations by Nupur Bhatnagar

      Cover illustration by Gurdev Singh

      Editor: Sukanya Sur

      Design: Shraboni Roy

      ISBN: 978-93-89136-11-1

      Publication: 2019

      All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without prior written permission and consent of the Publisher.

      Printed at: Niyogi Offset Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, India 4

      Contents

      Contents

      Foreword 6

      Preface 12

      Introduction to Baoli s 16

      THE BAOLI S OF DELHI

      Kotla Feroz Shah Baoli 34

      Red Fort Baoli 48

      Ridge Baoli 64

      Hazrat Nizam-ud-Din Baoli 74

      Ugrasen ki Baoli 84

      Munirka Baoli 100

      Gandhak ki Baoli 112

      Purana Qila Baoli 124

      Rajon ki Baoli 130

      Loharheri Baoli 146

      SPECIAL MENTIONS

      Baoli of Meherban Agha’s

      Mandi—Arab ki Sarai 154

      Baoli of Dargah Khwaja Kaki

      (Hafiz Dawood ki Baoli) 162

      Acknowledgements 171

      References 173

      5

      Delhi Heritage: Top 10 Baoli s

      foreword

      6

      All ancient civilizations, those that graduated from hunting and gathering to settled agriculture, had

      developed methods of harnessing water for agriculture and for daily consumption. Each civilization adapted to the peculiarities of their climatic conditions, the terrain they inhabited, the seasonality of precipitation, and developed techniques that were best suited to

      their conditions.

      In different parts of the world from the heights of

      Andes where the Incas lived to southern Mexico,

      Guatemala, Northern Belize, and Western Honduras

      inhabited by the Mayas, from the flood-prone plains

      of the Nile in Egypt to the lands inhabited by the

      Assyrians, the Sumerians, the Romans, the Chinese,

      and other ancient civilizations, there were as many

      solutions to problems of seasonal plenty and scarcity, even excess and flooding, or paucity and absence of

      water that were unique to each society.

      In India, during the times about which we do not

      know enough, there were those who settled in the

      Delhi Heritage: Top 10 Baoli s Indus Valley and whose settlements gradually grew

      into towns and cities. It were these people who

      developed a network of drains, some open while

      some underground, to carry water to all parts of the city. They also built large public baths, and we are still trying to understand how the entire system worked.

      The inheritors of these great cultures keep talking

      about their rich ancient civilizations, and how

      advanced were their techniques of urban planning,

      and it is the same with us. Whenever we participate

      in international colloquia on hydrology and on water management, we never tire of preening ourselves

      before the world community, telling them about the

      underground network of drains and the great baths

      and the hydrants, the remains of which can be seen

      even now. We try to present these as unique, and

      this we do because we have convinced ourselves that

      we are the fountainhead of all knowledge. It does

      not occur to us that each great civilization, some as old as ours, and a few even older, had found their

      own methods of solving the most crucial problem of

      human existence—water management.

      Boasting about a past—partly understood, partly

      misunderstood, and mostly imagined—is the

      8

      Foreword

      foundation upon which the edifice of the nation state is constructed. Despite the phenomenal diversity—

      climatic, cultural, social, and historical—that has

      informed these myriad ideas of a glorious past,

      there is one similarity that cuts across all, and that is our refusal to learn anything from this fantastic past, especially when it comes to practices that help sustainable living.

      We are creating newer and newer methods to

      exhaust our resources, ones that we do not have the

      mechanisms to regenerate. And one of these resources is water. The speed with which we are consuming,

      polluting, wasting, and destroying this one resource that every civilization had learnt to conserve makes one wonder if we can actually claim to be more

      civilized than all earlier civilizations.

      The slim volume Delhi Heritage—Top 10 Baoli s put together by Vikramjit Singh Rooprai, a young heritage enthusiast and photographer, looks at stepwells and

      their importance in meeting the water requirements

      of the residents of the capitals that rose and fell in what is now the national capital territory of Delhi, and also of the villages that have existed in this region much before the capitals came up.

      9

      Delhi Heritage: Top 10 Baoli s Aside from the stepwells, the residents of Delhi

      depended on natural waterbodies, man-made ponds

      and reservoirs, wells, natural streams, and canals,

      one of which brought water to the city of Shah

      Jahan across a distance of 130 kilometres. Most of

      the natural and man-made waterbodies have been

      encroached upon and built over, while the others

      are counting their last days. The canals are mostly

      gone, as are most of the wells. What remains of the

      traditional waterbodies are a score or so of stepwells, some visible and still in use, while others marking their time before they too meet the fate that has befallen most traditional waterbodies.

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