Stepwells formed part of a unique documentation project

A stepwell where a marriage between Lord Venkateshwara and Padmavathi takes place, a stepwell where people from Hindu and Muslim communities congregate to offer prayers, a stepwell with a bridge; these and other stepwells formed part of a unique documentation project which was showcased on Friday at the State Museum in the city.

The exhibition will be on display until June 6, with an expert narration on each day at 11.30 a.m.“There is a deep link between water and civilisation. These step wells show us that. Water is going to become more important as we head towards a more stressful phase. We can learn lessons from the past and from these wells. We know about Kakatiya chain of tanks, but the documentation and detailing of these wells have lessons for us in water conservation,” said N.R. Visalatchy of Department of Archaeology and Museums, which has backed the documentation project.

The project began with 33 wells and has now expanded to 130 wells. “I presented a paper on building topology at a seminar of architects. Now, the project has expanded to this stage, where we are documenting unique step wells in the region,” said Yeshwant Ramamurthy, an architect who led the design effort of Hyderabad Design Forum.

Mr. Ramamurthy gave a presentation on about 10 of the stepwells. A scientific publication titled ‘The Forgotten Stepwells of Telangana’ is slated to be released in 2019 by the group.