Read the passage and answer the questions given below it.
Most buildings are made to rise. The stepwells of Gujarat and Rajasthan were made to sink. Their builders started at ground level and worked downwards, flight after flight, towards water that might stand a few steps below the surface in August and far below it by May. The first purpose of all this digging was utilitarian. Nobody could say in advance where the water would be, so the whole building was a way of reaching it at any level, in a wet year or a dry one.
Somewhere along the way the builders grew ambitious. At Chand Baori in Abhaneri, the steps run down three sides in a zigzag so dense that photographs of it look like a trick of the eye. At Rani ki Vav in Patan, the walls of the long descent are crowded with carved figures, among them the avatars of Vishnu, so that going down for water feels oddly like walking through a temple. Adalaj, near Ahmedabad, was begun under a Hindu chief and finished by a sultan, and its stone carries the patterns of both.
Visitors usually praise the carving. I would give at least as much credit to the shade. Down at the lower landings the air is noticeably cooler than in the glare above, and for centuries the women who came for water lingered there to talk. A well was also a meeting place.
Then water began to arrive through pipes and taps, and the stepwells lost their reason to exist. Many filled up with rubbish. Rani ki Vav had already spent centuries buried under silt before it was dug out in the last century. Today it appears on the hundred-rupee note, admired by people who have never had to climb down it with a pot.
What does the writer suggest by saying that Rani ki Vav is “admired by people who have never had to climb down it with a pot”?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → The stepwell is now valued as something to look at, no longer as something to use.
The last line compares how people see Rani ki Vav today with what it was built for.
- Once, people climbed down the steps with a pot to fetch water. That was its daily use.
- Today the stepwell is on the hundred-rupee note. People admire its beauty, but nobody needs its water.
- So the writer suggests it has changed from a working well into a sight to look at.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 2: Visitors are no longer allowed to walk down the steps of Rani ki Vav. — Incorrect. Not mentioned: The passage says nothing about any rule for visitors. The line is about why people come, not where they may walk.
Option 3: The writer feels that a stepwell should not have been printed on a banknote. — Incorrect. Misread: The writer only states that it is on the note. There is no complaint about this.
Option 4: Most people who see the note have never travelled to Patan to see the stepwell. — Incorrect. Wrong focus: The line is about never needing the well for water. It does not say whether people have visited it.