Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/225

 CHAP. V. RESERVOIRS DAMS. 183 RESERVOIRS. The same fondness for water has given rise to another species of architectural display peculiar to India, in the great reservoirs or baolis, which are found wherever the wells are deep and water far from the surface. In design they are exactly the reverse of the ghats, 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. To persons not familiar with the East such an architectural object as a baoli 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 Hindu, for the more attractive magnificence of the ghats. 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 DAMS. In the same manner the bands or dams of the artificial lakes, or great tanks, which are so necessary for irrigation, are often made works of great architectural magnificence, first by covering them with flights of steps, like those of the ghats, and then erecting temples or pavilions, and kiosks, interspersed with fountains and statues in breaks between these flights. Where all these are of marble, as is sometimes the case in Rajputana, the whole make up as perfect a piece of archi- tectural combination as any the Hindus can boast of. One of the most beautiful of these is that erected at R^janagar near Kankroli, by Rana Rajasingh, who ascended the 1 For examples of these baolis or wavs see ' Archaeological Survey of Western India,' vol. viii. pp. 1-6, and 10-14, with plates 2, 3, 6, 13-16, 22 and 23 ; vol. '-38, 101, i] id 104, 107. ix. pp. 37-38, 101, 112-113, and plates 3, 13, 80, and