The Forgotten Stepwells of Telangana is a timely documentation of the wells that have been part of the cultural and social fabric of the region. The book by Hyderabad Design Forum (HDF) led by Yeshwant Ramamurthy is a fitting tribute to the role of wells before the advent of borewells and piped water supply. Drawing information from religion, mythology and lore, it places the role of stepwells in perspective in the arid dry landscape of Deccan.
“From unravelling scriptural building codes, hydrology, geology, construction techniques, iconography, history and folklore, the book aspires to resurrect the hitherto undocumented heritage of subterranean water architecture in Telangana,” says author Yeshwant Ramamurthy in the preface. True to the goal, the book unravels some of the lesser-known aspects of the stepwells and the reason for their existence.
The book has contributions by various authors, most of whom are practising architects. It begins with Sneha Parthasarathy’s extensively researched essay ‘An Ode to Water’ that tries to capture the role of water in human civilisation, imagination, theology, mythology, across religions and cultures.
