01A queen’s gift of water
Bundi sits in a fold of the Aravallis where the monsoon runs off fast, and its rulers and their queens built dozens of stepwells and kunds to hold the water through the dry months; the town is still called the city of stepwells. Rani Nathavati, a Solanki princess and a queen of Rao Raja Anirudh Singh, had this one built in 1699 as an act of punya for the people of the town. The flight of steps runs down some 46 metres through three levels, each crossed by a pillared gallery, to the water at the bottom.
02Toranas and avatars
The entrance is through a high arch carved with elephants, and the descent passes under ornamented toranas in the Rajput manner. In niches along the walls are images of the Dashavatara of Bhagwan Vishnu, with Ganesha and other deities, carved in local stone. The water is no longer drawn, but the baori is maintained as a protected monument, and the same walk through Bundi takes in the Nawal Sagar, the Garh palace with its murals and the Taragarh fort on the hill.
The life of this place
- 1699Rani Nathavati builds the stepwell.
In the old town of Bundi, near the main market; a small ticketed monument, best in the morning light.
