WATER FESTIVAL At ADALAJ Ni Vav 2024

Crraft Of Art is an initiative focused on reintroducing monuments to the people, especially the younger generation. It addresses creatively, a worrying disconnect and receding interest among the general public and youth towards our monuments and heritage.

For the past 15 years, in 35 Music Festivals, Crraft Of Art has taken the monuments to people, so to speak, through a rich blend of quality thematic music and display of the monument’s innate craftsmanship, beauty and splendour. The special effort is in unearthing the monument’s glory, presenting it to people in a form that makes it richer in content and appeal and blending it with music that makes the message special and relevant.

Located in a small village called Adalaj, twenty kilometres North of Ahmedabad, this world-renowned step well is an architectural wonder. Patronised by Queen Rudabai, wife of Vaghela chief Virsinh, Adalaj ni Vav was built in 1499 and is among one of the finest monuments of Gujarat. 

Laid on a North-South axis, with the well in the North and entrance in the South, the step well measures 75.3 meters. It is a five-storey structure, mostly underground, with three entrances opening into a square platform leading to the stepped corridor at the end of which is the well. The entrance platform rests on 16 pillars and the built-in shrines with carved balconies form its four corners. The stepped corridor leading to the well, built directly into the water table to ensure water year-round, originates at the square platform. The walls of the 'Vav' showcase sculptures and ornamentation. The Step Well, a unique feature of the architecture of Gujarat, combines the history, culture, artistic tradition, social customs and religious sentiment of the local people. A special feature of the step well was that besides storing and providing water it also offered cool resting places to the sun weary travellers. The step wells were a lifesaving source of water during draughts and other periods of water scarcity. 

Adalaj Vav has been preserved and conserved by the Archeological Survey of India. The monument is a major tourist destination in Gujarat.