History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c25.s26: Reservoirs.
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c25.s26
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Reservoirs.
v2.c25.s26.1
The same fondness for water has given rise to another species of architectural display peculiar to India, in the great reservoirs or *baolîs*, which are found wherever the wells are deep and water far from the surface. In design they are exactly the reverse of the ghâts, since the steps are wholly below the ground, and descend to the water sometimes even at a depth of 80 ft. or 100 ft. Externally they make no display, the only objects usually seen above ground being two pavilions to mark the entrance, between which a bold flight of steps, from 20 ft. to 40 ft. in width, leads down to the water. Facing the entrance is a great screen, rising perpendicularly from the water to the surface of the ground, and dividing the stairs from a circular shaft or well, up which the water is drawn by pulleys for agriculture, and for those who prefer that mode of obtaining it instead of descending the steps. The walls between which the steps descend are ornamented by niches, and covered with galleries leading to the great screen. Where the depth is great, there is often one or more screens across the stairs dividing the way down.
v2.c25.s26.2
To persons not familiar with the East such an architectural object as a baolî may seem a strange perversion of ingenuity, but the grateful coolness of all subterranean apartments, especially when accompanied by water, and the quiet shade of these recesses, fully compensate, in the eyes of the Hindû, for the more attractive magnificence of the ghâts. Consequently, the descending flights of which we are now speaking, have often been made more elaborate and expensive pieces of architecture than any of the buildings above ground found in their vicinity.¹
v2.c25.s26.3
¹ For examples of these baolîs or wâvs see 'Archæological Survey of Western India,' vol. viii. pp. 1-6, and 10-14, with plates 2, 3, 6, 13-16, 22 and 23; vol. ix. pp. 37-38, 101, 112-113, and plates 3, 13, 80, and 104, 107.