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.
The word ‘utilitarian’, as used in the passage, means:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → concerned with practical use rather than beauty
Something utilitarian is made for practical use, not for beauty.
- The passage says the “first purpose” of the digging was utilitarian. The next line gives that purpose. The builders needed a way of reaching the water “at any level”.
- The carving comes only in the next paragraph, when the builders “grew ambitious”. So the first aim was use, and beauty came later. Example: The new bus stand is utilitarian, with steel benches and a tin roof.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: shared equally by everyone in a community — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is closer to the meaning of communal. Example: All the families of our lane use a communal water tank.
Option 2: connected with religious duty or worship — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is the meaning of devotional. Example: My grandmother listens to devotional songs every morning.
Option 3: plain and free of any decoration — Incorrect. Wrong meaning: This is the meaning of unadorned. A useful thing is often plain, but utilitarian is about the purpose, not the look. Example: The bride chose a simple, unadorned cotton saree for the mehendi.