what is a stepwell
Birkha Bawari, View of a stepwell at Jodhpur. Stepwells, also called kalyani or pushkarani (Kannada :), bawdi (Hindi: à¤¬à¤¾à¤µà¤¡à¤¼à¥) or baoli (Hindi: à¤¬à¤¾à¤µà¤²à¥), barav (Marathi: à¤¬à¤¾à¤°à¤µ), vaav (Gujarati: àªµàª¾àªµ) are wells or ponds in which the water may be reached by descending a set of steps.n Gujarati and Marwari language, they are usually called vav or vaav. All forms of the stepwell are examples of the many types of storage and irrigation tanks that were developed in India, mainly to cope with seasonal fluctuations in water availability.