Built in 1740, Toorji Ka Jhalra, commonly known as Jodhpur stepwell, is an elaborate stepwell architecture, one of the few remaining structures that depict Jodhpur’s traditional water management systems. This architectural marvel was designed by Maharaja Abhaya Singh’s queen-consort, a symbol of the region’s age-old custom in which royal women were responsible for overseeing the public water works. The nature and construction help onlookers appreciate the lifestyle of the earlier generations who had used it in its prime, with the site serving for its time as the local watering hole.
This structure, which is 250 years old, was built using the famous rose-red sandstone found in Jodhpur. It was once decorated with intricate carvings of dancing elephants, medieval lions, cow waterspouts, and niches portraying various deities over 200 feet in size. There were two access levels and a separate tank that were meant to obtain water from the bullocks driven wheel system. Its impressive nature attracts many tourists, and the locals and visitors find it a fun place to participate in harmless, recreational water games to beat the heat.
History of Toorji ka Jhalra-
This impressive stepwell known as Toorji ka Jhalra was constructed by Jodhpur’s ruler Maharaja Abhay Singh Ji’s spouse Maharani Tanwar Ji in the year 1740. She was better known by the name Toorji Ji among the people of Jodhpur.
Baolis or step-wells were built by the ladies of the royal families as an ancestral tradition. This stepwell of Toorji was another one in the continuity of that tradition and was a part of the water harvesting system of the city.
Fetching water from such water bodies had always been among the most important daily tasks of women in those times. A sense of community prevailed in them while they all gathered at such places to discuss daily kinds of stuff.
