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.
Which of the following best expresses the central idea of the passage?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Stepwells were practical answers to a shifting water level that also became cool meeting places, until piped water left them unused.
The passage follows the stepwell from its first use to the day it was no longer needed.
- The water stood high in August and low by May. The steps let people reach it “at any level”. So the stepwell began as a practical answer to a shifting, or changing, water level.
- The lower landings were cool and shaded. Women who came for water stayed there to talk. “A well was also a meeting place.”
- When water came “through pipes and taps”, the stepwells lost their use. Many filled up with rubbish.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 2: Stepwells were built mainly as places of worship, and drawing water from them was only a side purpose. — Incorrect. Contradicted: Going down Rani ki Vav feels “like walking through a temple”. But the passage says the first purpose of the digging was to reach water.
Option 3: The shade of a stepwell matters more than its carving, since it kept the women who came for water cool. — Incorrect. Too narrow: The writer gives the shade “at least as much credit” as the carving. This is one paragraph, not the idea of the whole passage.
Option 4: Piped water wrecked a wiser old system, and the stepwells must now be restored to meet India’s water needs. — Incorrect. Not mentioned: The passage says piped water made the stepwells unused. It never asks for them to be used again for water.