And, as you descend into them, what mind-boggling structures these wells are. Their early builders were capable of astonishing feats of engineering. The Chand Baori in Abhaneri, east of Jaipur (the capital of Rajasthan), resembles an inverted ziggurat. Its 13 storeys and 3,500 narrow steps prefigure M.C. Escher’s “impossible objects” by centuries. The Panna Meena Ka Kund stepwell, also near Jaipur, is another elaborate masterpiece. Hindu embellishments to baolis included covered arcades and pavilions that served as refuges from the heat and even as lodgings. Sculptures and friezes were crammed with gods, animals and humans. Spreading Muslim rule introduced a more austere, though no less impressive, architecture of arches and jaalis (stone lattice windows).
當你深入其中，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)這些井的結(jié)構(gòu)是多么令人難以置信。早期的造井者具有驚人的工程才能。在齋浦爾(拉賈斯坦邦的首都)以東的阿巴涅里，Chand Baori就像一個倒立的金字型建筑。13層樓和3500個狹窄的臺階，預示著M.C.埃舍爾的“不可能圖形”將存在數(shù)百年。同樣位于齋浦爾附近的Panna Meena Ka Kund階梯井是另一件精致的杰作。印度人對baoli的裝飾包括有頂?shù)墓袄群屯ぷ樱米鞅苁畹谋幼o所，甚至是住所。雕塑和楣板上刻畫了神、動物和人類。穆斯林統(tǒng)治的擴張帶來了一種更為簡樸，但同樣令人印象深刻的拱門和賈里斯(石格子窗)建筑。
But all this was abandoned. The decline of the stepwell began with the British raj, which insisted baolis were unhygienic havens of vermin and disease. They called for them to be filled in or barricaded. The raj’s administrators were blind to their role in socialising and as subterranean caravanserais. Independent India’s encouragement of diesel-powered borewells proved to be the baoli’s death-knell.
但這一切都被拋棄了。階梯井的衰落始于英國拉賈斯坦邦統(tǒng)治時期，當時的英國堅持認為，baoli是害蟲和疾病的不衛(wèi)生庇護所。他們要求將其填滿或設置路障。拉賈斯坦邦的管理者對他們在社交和地下商隊中的角色視而不見。獨立后的印度鼓勵以柴油為動力的鉆井，這是baoli的喪鐘。
Yet these borewells’ impactonthewater table, plus untrammelled urban development, have led to a drastic depletion of natural aquifers and a countrywide water crisis. That is one reason why the restoration efforts of the AKTC and like-minded groups have struck a chord: more Indians are wondering whether old-fashioned water-conservation methods have lessons for today.
然而，這些鉆井對地下水位的影響，加上不受限制的城市發(fā)展，已經(jīng)導致了自然含水層的急劇枯竭和全國性的水危機。這就是為什么阿加汗文化信托基金和志同道合的團體的恢復努力引起了共鳴的原因之一：越來越多的印度人想知道傳統(tǒng)的節(jié)水方法對今天是否有借鑒意義。
At Nizamuddin dargah, the trust has saved the baoli. Its workers cleared the tank of tonnes of sludge, and relaid the neighbourhood’s sewage pipes. Marrying traditional workmanship with laser scans and ground-penetrating radar, the trust rebuilt the baoli in a form as close to the original as possible. In the process, a subterranean passage from the saint’s tomb to the tank was uncovered, along with water springs and the well’s wooden foundations.
在Nizamuddin dargah，信托基金拯救了baoli。工人們清理了水箱里的數(shù)噸污泥，并重新鋪設了附近的污水管道。該基金會將傳統(tǒng)工藝與激光掃描和探地雷達相結(jié)合，以盡可能接近原始的形式重建了baoli。在這個過程中，發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個從圣人的墳墓到水槽的地下通道，還發(fā)現(xiàn)了泉水和井底的木質(zhì)地基。
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