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India’s magnificent stepwells are relics of a nuanced history

印度宏伟的阶梯井是一段微妙历史的遗迹

词汇

Relic/遗迹；遗骸

Nuanced/微妙的；具有细微差别的

A restoration drive is reviving their glory—and uncovering their wisdom

一场复兴运动正在恢复他们的荣耀，并揭露他们的智慧

Jul 13th 2019 | DELHI

THE STORY goes that devout followers of Nizamuddin Auliya, a Sufi saint who lived from 1238 to 1325, had already begun work on his baoli or stepwell when Ghazi Malik, the new sultan of Delhi, ordered all projects to stop until the construction of an impregnable citadel for him was finished. Out of adoration for Nizamuddin, the labourers worked on the fortress by day and the baoli by night. Enraged, Ghazi Malik banned the sale of oil for lamps—whereupon Nizamuddin blessed the well’s water and told his followers to use that instead. Miraculously, it burned.

故事时这样展开的: 尼扎穆丁·欧里亚（一位生于1238年，逝于1325年的苏菲派圣人）的虔诚的追随者们,已经开始在他的印度阶梯井的建造工作；而此时勇士马利克——德里的新的统治者,命令所有的项目停止,直到完成为他建造一座坚不可摧的城堡的项目。出于对尼扎穆丁的崇拜，工人们白天在为堡垒干活，晚上在致力于阶梯井的建设。愤怒的加齐·马利克下令禁止油灯的销售，于是尼扎穆丁为祈求于井水，并告诉他的追随者改用井水。奇迹般地,井水燃烧了起来，（发出了圣光）。

词汇

Devout/虔诚的；衷心的

Ghazi/勇士；抗击异教徒的勇士

baoli or stepwell/这里baoli指的是印度阶梯井（英语：Stepwells；印度语bawdi、baoli）

sultan/苏丹（某些伊斯兰国家统治者的称号）

Impregnable/坚固的，无法攻取的

Citadel/城堡；大本营；避难处

Whereupon/于是；随之

Today, Nizamuddin remains one of South Asia’s most admired Sufi saints. His message of tolerance and humanity appeals in an age when political leaders preach communal division. Not just Muslims but Hindus, Sikhs and Christians flock to his dargah, or shrine, in New Delhi, where qawwali songs of devotion are performed. Thousands crowd every day down the narrow, beggar-lined passageway that runs alongside the baoli on their way to strewing rose petals on the holy man’s tomb. Many pilgrims believe in the healing power of the baoli water (pictured above).

今天，尼扎穆丁仍然是南亚最受尊敬的苏菲派圣人之一。在当今这个政治领导人鼓吹社会分裂的时代，他所传递的宽容和人道的信息颇具吸引力。不仅是穆/斯/林，印度教徒、锡克教徒和基督徒也纷纷涌向他在新德里的达迦(dargah)或圣地，在那里人们唱着qawwali敬拜之歌。每天都有成千上万的人挤在阶梯井边狭窄的、沿街乞讨的过道上，他们要把玫瑰花瓣撒在圣人的坟墓上。许多朝圣者相信阶梯井水的治疗作用(见上图)。

词汇

Dargah/达迦（穆/斯/林圣人的墓或圣殿）

Shrine/圣地；神殿

Petals/花瓣

Pilgrim/朝圣者；漫游者

 

Until recently that water was filthy. The tank was full of rubbish; the neighbourhood’s raw sewage flowed into it. Worse, the structure, which is more than 160 feet (49 metres) deep, was in an advanced state of dilapidation. One section of its walls of grey Delhi quartzite had collapsed. Other parts were bulging alarmingly—and, for the dozens of families who had built homes atop them, perilously.

直到最近，那里的水还很脏。河道里装满了垃圾;社区里未经处理的污水流入其中。更糟糕的是，这座超过160英尺(49米)深的建筑已经处于破损的晚期。其中一段灰色的德里石英岩墙已经倒塌。其他部分也在惊人地膨胀——对于那些在上面盖房子的几十个家庭来说，这是非常危险的。

词汇

Filthy/肮脏的；污秽的

Sewage/污水；下水道；污物

Dilapidation/  破损；崩塌

Bulge/ 鼓起，隆起

Perilously/危机四伏地；充满危险地

India has thousands of surviving stepwells, but the great majority are similarly run-down. Many others have vanished, often filled in and built upon. This neglectful attitude is extraordinary, for they are one of India’s unsung wonders. At last, through restoration efforts by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), among others, they are starting to get the recognition they deserve.

印度有数千口现存的梯级井，但绝大多数梯级井也同样在衰竭。许多其他的已经消失，大多是被填补和用于建造的地基。这种忽视的态度是离奇的，因为他们是印度被埋没的奇迹之一。最后，通过阿加汗文化信托基金(AKTC)等机构的修复努力，他们开始得到应有的认可。

词汇

Unsung/未被赞颂的；被埋没的

The earliest of the wells date back almost 2,000 years. They were first and foremost a response to a climate in which a year’s rains fall chiefly in the four brief months of the summer monsoon, when they fall at all. The point of the staircases and side ledges is to provide permanent access to ever-fluctuating water levels—and cool shelter in the hottest months. In the north-western regions that are India’s most arid, such as Rajasthan and Gujarat, the baolis underwrote life, as sources of both irrigation and drinking water. They were often located on ancient trade routes. In Delhi, every community once had its own tank.

最早的井可以追溯到2000年前。它们首先是人们对一种气候的应对措施，在这种气候中，一年的降雨主要集中在夏季季风的四个月里，而这四个月正是雨季来临的时候。楼梯和侧壁架的特点是为不断波动的水位提供永久性的通道，并在最热的月份提供凉爽的庇护所。在印度最干旱的西北地区，如拉贾斯坦邦和古吉拉特邦，梯级井作为灌溉和饮用水源的方式保障了当地人的生命。它们经常坐落在古老的贸易路线上。在德里，每个社区曾经都有自己的蓄水池。

 

Many stepwells were used for ablution; the tanks associated with mosques, Hindu temples and other shrines offered the most purificatory form. Summoning water from the depths was also a symbol of temporal power. Around Hyderabad in south-central India, many of the baolis were built by kings and zamindars. A surprising number were built at the behest of women, including princesses, courtesans and merchants’ wives, who wished to attain immortality through the gift of water. Indeed, stepwells have always been considered women’s spaces—places to gather without inhibitions, away from men’s domineering eyes (in India, after all, it is traditionally a woman’s job to fetch and carry water). Rani-ki-Vav, or the queen’s stepwell, in Patan in Gujarat, graces the new 100-rupee note.

许多阶梯井用于斋戒沐浴;这些井池联结着清真寺、印度寺庙和其他神殿，提供了最洁净的沐浴形式。从深处召唤水也是世俗力量的象征。在印度中南部的海德拉巴周围，许多阶梯井是由国王和印度地主们建造的。在女性的要求下，包括公主、交际花和商人的妻子，她们希望通过水的馈赠获得永生，因此建造了数量惊人的阶梯井。事实上，阶梯井一直被认为是女性的空间——一个不受约束、远离男性霸道目光的地方(毕竟，在印度，传统上取水和挑水是女性的工作)。古吉拉特邦帕坦的“女王阶梯井”为新版100卢比增添了一份光彩。

词汇

Ablution/斋戒沐浴

Mosque/清真寺

Purificatory/净化的；涤罪的

Zamindar/印度地主

Behest/命令；邀请；请求

Immortality/不朽；不朽的声名；不灭

Courtesan/交际花

 

And, as you descend into them, what mind-boggling structures these wells are. Their early builders were capable of astonishing feats of engineering. The Chand Baori in Abhaneri, east of Jaipur (the capital of Rajasthan), resembles an inverted ziggurat. Its 13 storeys and 3,500 narrow steps prefigure M.C. Escher’s “impossible objects” by centuries. The Panna Meena Ka Kund stepwell (pictured above), also near Jaipur, is another elaborate masterpiece. Hindu embellishments to baolis included covered arcades and pavilions that served as refuges from the heat and even as lodgings. Sculptures and friezes were crammed with gods, animals and humans. Spreading Muslim rule introduced a more austere, though no less impressive, architecture of arches and jaalis (stone lattice windows).

当你深入其中，你会发现这些井是多么令人难以置信的结构。他们早期的建造者具有惊人的工程才能。在斋浦尔(拉贾斯坦邦的首都)以东的阿巴涅里，Chand Baori就像一个倒立的金字型建筑。它的13层楼和3500个狭窄的台阶，预示着m·c·埃舍尔(M.C. Escher)的“不可能的物体”将存在数百年。同样位于斋浦尔附近的Panna Meena Ka Kund stepwell(上图)是另一件精致的杰作。印度人对阶梯井的装饰包括有顶的拱廊和亭子，用作避暑的庇护所，甚至是住所。雕塑和楣板上挤满了神、动物和人类。穆/斯/林统治的扩张带来了一种更为简朴，但同样令人印象深刻的拱门和贾里斯(石格子窗)建筑。

词汇

mind-boggling/令人难以置信的；令人惊异的

Ziggurat/金字塔

Elaborate/精心制作的

Embellishment/ 装饰，修饰

Arcade/拱廊

Frieze/装饰带；壁缘

Austere/严峻的；简朴的

Architecture/建筑学；建筑风格

 

Not a drop to drink

一滴也不喝

But all this was abandoned. The decline of the stepwell began with the British raj, which insisted baolis were unhygienic havens of vermin and disease. They called for them to be filled in or barricaded. The raj’s administrators were blind to their role in socialising and as subterranean caravanserais. Independent India’s encouragement of diesel-powered borewells proved to be the baoli’s death-knell.

但这一切都被抛弃了。阶梯井的衰落始于英国统治时期，当时的英国坚持认为，阶梯井是害虫和疾病滋生的不卫生的“天堂”。他们要求将其填满或设置路障。统治者的管理人员对它们在社交和地下商队中的扮演的作用视而不见。独立后的印度鼓励以柴油为动力的钻井，这被证明是阶梯井的丧钟。

词汇

Raj/统治；支配

Unhygienic/不卫生的；不健康的

Vermin/害虫；寄生虫

Subterranean/地下的；秘密的；隐蔽的

Caravanseray/  驿站

diesel-powered/柴油驱动的

 

Yet these borewells’ impact on the water table, plus untrammelled urban development, have led to a drastic depletion of natural aquifers and a countrywide water crisis. That is one reason why the restoration efforts of the AKTC and like-minded groups have struck a chord: more Indians are wondering whether old-fashioned water-conservation methods have lessons for today.

然而，这些水井对地下水位的影响，加上不受限制的城市发展，导致了自然含水层的急剧枯竭和全国性的水危机。这就是AKTC和志同道合的团体的修复努力引起共鸣的原因之一:越来越多的印度人想知道传统的水资源保护方法是否对今天有借鉴意义。

词汇

Untrammeled/不受限制的

Depletion/消耗；损耗

Aquifer/蓄水层；含水土层

 

At Nizamuddin dargah, the trust has saved the baoli. Its workers cleared the tank of tonnes of sludge, and relaid the neighbourhood’s sewage pipes. Marrying traditional workmanship with laser scans and ground-penetrating radar, the trust rebuilt the baoli in a form as close to the original as possible. In the process, a subterranean passage from the saint’s tomb to the tank was uncovered, along with water springs and the well’s wooden foundations.

在尼扎穆丁的圣墓，信托基金拯救了阶梯井。工人们清理了水池里的数吨污泥，并重新铺设了附近的污水管道。该基金会将传统工艺与激光扫描和探地雷达相结合，以尽可能接近原始的形式重建了阶梯井。在这个过程中，一条贯穿圣人的坟墓到蓄水池的地下通道从被发现，连同泉水和井的木制基建。

词汇

Relay/重新铺设

Penetrating/渗透的；尖锐的

 

Meanwhile, the trust also turned to the adjacent, huge gardens belonging to Humayun’s tomb, a Mughal building of even more breathtaking beauty than the Taj Mahal. The lush grounds are covered in tanks and wells that the trust is restoring. With Ratish Nanda, the AKTC’s enthusiastic head in India, this correspondent recently descended to the bottom of a baoli that was being cleared of centuries of rubble and sludge, bucket by laborious bucket. Two weeks later, water was starting to gush in. One find, covered over by the British, is a 16th-century well built not to capture water, but to ensure it flows back into the underlying aquifer. Mr Nanda says the restoration work has helped raise the area’s water table by several metres.

与此同时，信托基金还转向了毗邻的巨大花园，属于呼玛雍陵墓，一座比泰姬陵更美得惊人的莫卧儿王朝建筑。郁郁葱葱的土地上布满了水池和水井，信托人员正在恢复。与AKTC在印度的热心负责人拉蒂什•南达(Ratish Nanda)一起，本报记者最近来到了一个阶梯井的底部；人们正在一桶又一桶辛苦劳作，清理数百年来的瓦砾和污泥。两周后，水开始涌进来。其中一处发现被英国人发现，这是16世纪建造的一口井，不是为了取水，而是为了确保水能流回地下含水层。南达表示，修复工作帮助该地区的地下水位提高了几米。

词汇

Bucket/桶，水桶

Next door, in Sunder Nursery, the trust has converted 90 acres (36 hectares) of abandoned land into the sooty capital’s first new park in years, laid out as a classical Persian garden. Again, tanks and wells are an essential component. “Delhi needed a refuge,” says Mr Nanda. The gardens have become one of the most popular spots for the city’s families and lovers. The AKTC is now taking on the most ambitious project yet: a 106-acre site in Hyderabad, where seven stepwells were built by the Qutb Shabi dynasty in ornate, white-plastered granite. As became clear during the restoration, they were linked by underground channels that also connect to aquifers.

在隔壁的桑德尔托儿所(Sunder Nursery)，该信托基金将90英亩(36公顷)的废弃土地改造成了这座被烟尘笼罩的首都数年来的第一个新公园，规划为一座古典波斯花园。同样，水池和井也是必不可少的组成部分。“德里需要一个避难所，”南达表示。这些花园已经成为这座城市最受家庭和情侣欢迎的景点之一。AKTC目前正在进行迄今为止最具雄心的项目:在海德拉巴占地106英亩的土地上，这里曾有着库特布沙比王朝(Qutb Shabi dynasty)在华丽的白色石膏花岗岩上建造了7口阶梯井。很明显，在修复期间，它们通过地下通道相连，地下通道也连接着含水层。

词汇

Sooty/乌黑的；煤烟熏黑的

Ornate/  华丽的；装饰的

Plastered/醉醺醺的；涂得厚厚的

Granite/花岗岩

Some of the obstacles to this effort are not physical but political. To help pay for its conservation work, the trust seeks donations from Indian companies. Yet supporters of the Hindu-nationalist government of Narendra Modi, the prime minister, dislike the idea of a body headed by the Aga Khan, an Islamic leader, being involved in Indian cultural work; besides, the Hindutva agenda is to expunge Mughal influence from Indian life, as if it were an alien, Muslim carbuncle rather than an intrinsic part of the country’s inheritance. They are said to have been leaning on companies not to donate. That arid worldview is refuted by the joyful families picnicking in Sunder Nursery, and the devotion of pilgrims at Nizamuddin baoli.

这项努力的一些障碍不是物质上的，而是政治上的。为了帮助支付保护工作的费用，该基金会寻求印度公司的捐款。然而，印度总理纳伦德拉•莫迪(Narendra Modi)领导的印度教民族主义政府的支持者不喜欢由伊斯兰领袖阿加汗(Aga Khan)领导的机构参与印度文化工作;此外，Hindutva的议程是要从印度生活中抹去莫卧儿王朝的影响，就好像它是一种外来的穆/斯/林红玉，而不是这个国家遗产的固有部分。据说他们一直要求公司不要捐款。那些在桑德尔托儿所野餐的快乐家庭，以及在尼扎穆丁保利朝圣的虔诚信徒，都驳斥了这种枯燥的世界观。

词汇

Carbuncle/  [中医] 痈；红宝石

refute/反驳，驳斥；驳倒