Fluid verve - Nowhere but in Mandu, does one find so many structures conceived with water as an integral part of design - Article from Terrascape magazine

Mandu is magical because of its location: A vast lush green plateau at 2,000 feet above sea level, rising a thousand feet above the surrounding low lands and the lazy course of the picturesque Narmada. The plateau, spreading across 20 square km was once enclosed within fortified walls, now mostly ruined, that had a combined length of 45 km. Mandu is at its best during the monsoon, getting the bulk of its annual quota of 1050 mm of rains between June–Sept, almost 300 mm more than the quota of Delhi.

Located as it is, a top a plateau, it was crucial for the residents and builders of Mandu to develop mechanisms to trap and save all the rain water for use through the year. Those who chose to live here developed and preserved reservoirs, stepwells and a complex network of pipes, conduits and underground channels, to meet their needs for irrigation, drinking, domestic use and aesthetic pleasure.

According to a study conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), they made tanks in hundreds, large and small; built them at different levels; connected them with each other through complex winding channels to slow down the flow; filtered the water through age-old techniques of passing it through sand, pebbles and charcoal to remove dissolved solids; built conduits through interconnected hollow pillars that cooled buildings and ensured delivery of water deep inside the palaces, in spaces that were meant for the private use of the royalty.

Very little of this elaborate system has survived in a handful of monuments. But this is enough, at least at these few locations, to create the magic of water during the monsoon - a magic that is perhaps unique to Mandu, for nowhere else does one  find so many  structures, conceived with water as a defining element of design.

Every major complex had its own water supply; buildings at ground level were fed through underground channels while the water requirements of taller buildings were met through roof-top tanks which could have been filled through a system of locks, Persian wheels that had arrived by the 13th century, aqueducts or through water drawn from wells through a bucket and pulley system.  

Rewa Kund is one of the numerous water bodies of Mandu. Rewa is another name for Narmada and Roopmati was deeply attached to the Narmada. It is said that she loved to spend quite a lot of her time at the Rewa Kund and it is perhaps because of her attachment to Rewa Kund that Baz Bahadur decided to turn the nearby Palace of the Sultan of Malwa, Nasir Shah Khilji, (built 1508) into his own abode.

The 40 broad steps leading to the main gate of the palace are flanked on the southern side by high arches. Above the arches there is a water channel; water was lifted from a well near the Kund through a Persian wheel or a system of water locks, probably the former. The arches thus functioned as an aqueduct, carrying water to the palace. It is difficult to say if these water works were commissioned by Baz Bahadur because Roopmati loved the Kund or was the elaborate network of water supply created by Nasir Shah Khilji, the builder and earlier occupant of the palace. The ingenious network of channels and terracotta or ceramic pipes that carried water through ducts built into the thick walls is to be seen to be believed.

The broken walls have revealed this network at places and one can only imagine the play of water through fountains or a network of channels that would have not only cooled the palace but also enriched the ambience of the royal abode through the sounds of water rippling through the large enclosures.  As one moves into the interior of the palace one enters a large open courtyard with a square pool of water with steps leading into the pool from all sides. The pool inside the palace does not have a visible source of water supply. Is there perhaps a hidden source that supplies water from the Rewa Kund?

Roopmati’s Pavillion is a little distance away from the Palace of Baz Bahadur and is approached through a winding road. The structure, built in the early 15th century, was originally a long hall with rooms at each end and served the purpose of an observation post; guards would have probably used the hall below as their living quarters.

The observation post later saw extensions and additions in two phases, the pavilions, favoured by Roopmati, on the terrace coming up in the latter of the two phases. It is said that Roopmati visited the site to look at her beloved river Narmada flowing in the Nimar Valley below. One does not know which was Roopmati’s preferred hour for gazing at the Narmada, but I have been told by those who have had access to the monument at night that the best time is when the skies are clear on a full-moon night.

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