Entry № 01Water Architecture

Going down instead of up

A stepwell is built downward to meet a falling water table: flights of steps descending several storeys to a shaft, cut so the water is reachable in every season.

Region: Gujarat, Rajasthan and the Deccan edge
Worked by: Stone-mason lineages
Material: Sandstone, granite

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Rows of intricately carved sandstone pillars line a stepwell's descending corridor — Storeys of pillared landing at Adalaj: cool at depth, open to the shaft, walkable at any water level.Adalaj Vav, Gandhinagar · Wikimedia Commons

How every entry is written

Each entry names the region and the community that works it

One region's work is never entered as the whole country's. Where a practice belongs to a named community — Khatri printers in Kachchh, Salvi weavers at Patan — the register says so, because the community is part of the description.

Six to look at first

A selection, not the roster

Dye-stained hands hold a triangular wooden block stamp upright on cloth

Printed and Dyed№ 05 Ajrakh A resist and mordant process of many stages worked by Khatri printers in Kachchh, printed on both faces so the cloth reads either way. Kachchh, Gujarat; Sindh · Khatri printers

Rows of colorful ikat-patterned fabrics displayed in stacked folds on a shelf

Woven Cloth№ 11 Ikat and double ikat Resist-dyed in the yarn before weaving. Patan, Gujarat; Odisha; Telangana · Salvi weavers at Patan

Architectural line drawing of a temple shikhara's half plan with radiating geometric offsets and a scale bar

Temple Structure№ 15 Nagara and Dravida Two structural traditions routinely lumped together: a curved shikhara in the north, a stepped pyramidal vimana in the south. North, west and east; the Tamil country · Mason and sculptor lineages

Cardamom seedlings on a hillside clearing with forested valley and snow-capped peaks beyond

Spice Regions№ 19 The Western Ghats Pepper, cardamom and the rainfall and altitude that decide where they grow. Malabar and the Cardamom Hills · Smallholders and estate pickers

Weathered brick tower with carved stone pillar and tiled roof among palm trees

Colonial and Princely№ 23 Iron and arcade Imported structural iron meeting local stone and a deep shading arcade. Mumbai and the port cities · Contract masons and iron founders

Symmetrical stepped stairways descend on multiple sides toward a green water pool at the base

Water Architecture№ 02 Vav and baoli Regional forms with different plans — a long single flight in Gujarat, stepped sides in the Rajasthan and Delhi region. Gujarat; Rajasthan and the Delhi region · Stone-mason lineages

The full register, all twenty-five entries, with region, community, material and structure

Six sections

Each holds its own entries and terms

Water Architecture

Stepwells, tanks and going down instead of up.

4 entries

Printed and Dyed

Block, resist and mordant.

5 entries

Woven Cloth

Brocade, ikat and the loom.

5 entries

Temple Structure

Nagara, Dravida and rock-cut.

4 entries

Spice Regions

What grows where, and the trade.

4 entries

Colonial and Princely

Iron, arcade and commission.

3 entries

Also in the register

Three more

17

Carved stone stupa flanked by rows of pillars inside a vaulted rock-cut cave hall

Rock-cutTemple Structure · The western Deccan escarpment Excavated rather than built — subtractive architecture with no possibility of correction. 06

Wavy indigo shibori pattern on cotton fades into solid dark blue dyed fabric

Mud resistPrinted and Dyed · Bagru, Rajasthan Bagru printing in Rajasthan, where the resist is a clay paste rather than wax. 22

Burlap sacks filled with dried red chilies, star anise, and black peppercorns

Trade and godownsSpice Regions · Kochi and the port towns Storage and grading as the part of the trade nobody photographs.

Hands laying a carved block onto cloth at a printing table — Registration is done by eye — the printer sets each block against the ghost of the last.Sumit photography / Pexels

Printed and Dyed · section two of six

Five entries in this section turn on the same problem: deciding where colour is not allowed to reach the cloth.

Sunken dye vats in a workshop floor — Indigo works in the absence of air. The colour arrives as the cloth comes out of the vat.Teona Swift / Pexels

How the register is written

Six fields, one line each

25Entries

6Sections

6Fields per entry

0Recommendations

Every entry carries the same six fields: the tradition, the region it belongs to, the community or workshop that works it, the material, what holds it up or how it is made, and a number that stays with the entry wherever it appears. The number is a filing position, not a rank.

This is a description of made things and built places. It is not a guide to going anywhere, and it carries no visiting information.