A town that lived by the rain
In Amer, as everywhere in Rajasthan, the monsoon came for a few weeks and then vanished for the rest of the year. Every drop that fell had to be caught, kept and shared.
A valley of streams: Amer is ringed by hills, and in the rains water pours off them. The kings and the townspeople built a whole system to hold it.
Maota Lake: below the fort, it collected the run-off from the slopes.
Sagar: a reservoir in a hollow beneath Jaigarh, storing water for the town. A path climbs to it behind the town, a peaceful early walk with peacocks calling from the hills.
At a glance
- Built
- Usually dated to the sixteenth century
- Built by
- Unrecorded, no inscription survives
- Open
- A public place, steps often closed
- Allow
- Thirty to forty-five minutes
- Best time
- Early morning
- Photography
- Welcome, ask before photographing people
- Getting there
- A 10 to 15 minute walk from Amber Fort
- Jaigarh's tanks: up on the ridge, underground tanks caught the rain on the fort's courtyards.
- In the lanes: stepped tanks and wells let people reach the water as it fell lower through the dry months.
- Panna Meena's date: usually the sixteenth century, when Amer grew rich under Raja Man Singh I. No inscription records who built it or when.
- A kund: a stepped tank open to the sky, made to collect rainwater.
- A baori or vav: usually reaches groundwater through a long corridor of steps.
- Names blur: in Amer people call it a stepwell, a kund or a baori without a second thought.
- Practical: the water served for washing, bathing and the gardens and temples nearby.
- Social: in summer the shaded steps were the coolest place in town. Women came to fetch water, bathe, wash clothes and talk away from the street's eyes.
- The bigger story: our stepwells of Rajasthan page tells it.
Who was Panna Meena?
Ask five people in Amer who Panna Meena was and you'll get five answers, each told with great confidence.
A courtier named Panna: one popular story says a eunuch or courtier of the Amer court paid for it.
Miyan, not Meena: in some tellings the second word is a corruption of Miyan, and you will occasionally see Panna Miyan ka Kund.
Two stories
- A courtier
- Panna, said to have paid for it
- Another spelling
- Panna Miyan ka Kund
- The Meenas
- First lords of this valley
- The Meenas: another tradition links the name to the community who were the first lords of this valley before the Kachwahas, and who still live in large numbers around Amer.
- No certainty: we can't tell you which is true, and neither can anyone else.
- How Amer sees itself: a Rajput town that remembers the Meena chiefs before it, and the servants, courtiers and townspeople whose money and labour made it work.
- Named for one of them: rather than for a king. It feels right.
The geometry, explained
Stand at the rim and look down, and your eyes won't settle. That is not an accident. It is the whole design.
Three sides of stairs: narrow flights run diagonally across each other, forming interlocking triangles and diamonds from rim to water.
The fourth side: small chambers and covered platforms built against the wall, with little domed pavilions at the corners of the rim.
Symmetrical and bewildering: which is why our grandmother's riddle about the staircases works.
Facts to know
- Shape
- A deep square tank
- Three sides
- Crossing flights of narrow steps
- Fourth side
- Chambers and covered platforms
- Stone
- Warm local sandstone
- Full or empty: the tank had to work brim-full after a heavy monsoon or nearly dry in May.
- Steps at every level: people could reach the water from any side, at any depth, without one long stair.
- Holding back the earth: the crossing pattern spreads the load pressing against the walls, which helps the structure stand.
- The side chambers: shade, a place to rest and change, and somewhere to leave belongings.
- The stone's colours: honey-gold in early sun, almost pink at dusk.
- Worn soft: four centuries of feet have rounded the step edges.
- Shadow play: as the sun moves, the steps cut the walls into light and dark that changes every half hour. Our guide to reading Rajasthani architecture explains more.
Part of a whole valley's plumbing
It is easy to see Panna Meena as a beautiful object. It makes more sense as one piece of a water system that kept a royal capital alive for six centuries.
Read it downhill: the whole system is visible on the ground.
Jaigarh: rain from its courtyards filled vast underground tanks, so the fort could withstand a long siege.
Top to bottom
- Ridge
- Jaigarh's underground tanks
- Hills
- Sagar reservoir
- Valley floor
- Stepped tanks like this one
- Bottom
- Maota Lake, feeding the palace
- Sagar: in a hollow of the hills, holding water for the town.
- The valley floor: stepped tanks such as Panna Meena gathered run-off from lanes and rooftops.
- Maota Lake: caught what flowed off the hillsides and supplied the palace, which raised water up the slope to its gardens and baths.
- Greater than its parts: together they let a court of thousands live in comfort in a dry valley with a short monsoon.
- After 1727: when the capital moved to Jaipur, much of the system kept working for the town that remained.
- In the palace: our Amber Fort guide shows how water shaped it, from the saffron garden on Maota Lake to the cooled floors of the Sukh Niwas.
Women, water and the songs of the kund
In the old Rajasthani songs, the woman carrying water home is everywhere: the brass pots balanced on her head, the anklets on the steps, the lover waiting by the well.
Women's work: for centuries across Rajasthan, and it shaped the day.
Twice a day: early morning and late afternoon, often in groups, with stacked brass or clay pots on a coiled cloth ring on the head.
Facts to know
- Water trips
- Early morning and late afternoon
- Songs
- Panihari, the water-carrier's songs
- Gangaur
- March or April
- Teej
- The monsoon festival
- Rare freedom: tiring trips, but some of the few hours a woman spent outside her home and away from her in-laws.
- The town's meeting place: news was shared, marriages discussed, and quarrels made and mended.
- Panihari songs: a whole family of folk songs in the water-carrier's voice, still sung at weddings and festivals.
- Ask for one: at a courtyard dinner in Jaipur, and watch the older women smile. Our folk music and dance page has more.
- Gangaur: in March or April, women and girls in many towns carry pots of water and flowers from the local tank or well to worship the goddess Gauri. See our Gangaur page.
- Teej: in the monsoon, the first full tanks of the year are a cause for celebration.
The best hour and the best season
Panna Meena is at its finest in the first hour after the sun clears the hills, when the light slants across the steps and only the pigeons are awake.
Early morning: the eastern walls are in shadow and the western walls glow, so the full depth of the pattern reads clearly.
Late morning: the sun is overhead, shadows flatten and the steps lose their drama.
Facts to know
- Best hour
- Early morning
- Flattest light
- Late morning
- Comfortable
- October to March
- Most beautiful
- The monsoon, when it fills
- Late afternoon: lovely light too, though often busier.
- After the fort: most guests come straight from Amber Fort. Arrive there as the gates open and you reach the kund by mid-morning.
- October to March: soft clear light, and usually low water, exposing more steps.
- April to June: the tank may be almost dry, and by ten the stone is too hot to linger.
- The monsoon, our favourite: after good rain the kund fills, the steps vanish into green water and the hills turn green. How it was meant to be seen.
- Every month: our best time to visit Jaipur guide explains them all.
How to visit Panna Meena respectfully
This is not a museum. It is a public place in a living town, and people still come here to sit and talk.
Often closed: in recent years the steps have frequently been shut to protect the structure and for safety, with guards asking people to stay at the rim. The view from the top is the best anyway.
If you may go down: take great care. The steps are steep, narrow and uneven, with no rails, and slippery near the water. Hold children by the hand.
Before you go
- Steps
- Often closed, stay at the rim
- Dress
- Modest
- Bring
- A hat and water
- Never
- Coins or food in the water
- Quietly: dress modestly and keep your voice low. Women from the neighbourhood sometimes sit in the shade at the edge.
- Ask first: before photographing people. Many local families have had enough of strangers' cameras.
- Nothing in the water: no coins, food or anything else.
- Shoots: the kund is a popular backdrop for wedding and fashion shoots. If one is under way, wait a few minutes or come back later.
- No midday shade: bring a hat and water. Our page on temple etiquette has broader advice for sacred and public places.
With children, grandparents and limited mobility
The kund is one of the easiest sights in Amer, and one of the best for younger visitors, as long as everyone stays on the right side of the rim.
The riddle: children love the puzzle of the staircases.
Counting triangles: on one wall, it keeps them busy for longer than you might expect.
- Hold small hands: there are low walls at the edge but no high railings.
- Grandparents: the car can usually stop close by, and the ground around the rim is fairly level.
- The view is the visit: from the top, which suits anyone with limited mobility.
- Broader advice: our guides to travelling with children and accessible travel.
Photographing the kund
Every photographer who comes here tries to capture the whole pattern in one frame. The best pictures usually come from doing the opposite.
The classic frame: from one corner of the rim, diagonally across the tank, so two walls of crossing steps meet mid-frame.
Keep it level: use a wide lens and hold the camera straight, or the pattern will lean.
Facts to know
- Classic shot
- From a corner, looking diagonally
- Lens
- Wide, held level
- Professional shoots
- Need permission, we arrange it
- Drones
- We don't fly them here
- Then go small: the repeated triangles of a single wall, a line of steps into the water, a pigeon on a ledge, one staircase's shadow across another.
- Scale: a figure in a bright odhni or turban against the honey stone makes a lovely picture, but always ask first and never pose strangers.
- Permissions: professional shoots usually need them from the authorities, which we arrange in advance.
- More ideas: our photography tips for Rajasthan and best photo spots in Jaipur.
What most visitors miss
Most people stop for five minutes, take their photograph and move on. Give it half an hour and the kund starts to show you things.
The chambers on the side
- Where the pattern breaks: small rooms and covered platforms on one side.
- A place to stay a while: for rest and shade, perhaps for changing after bathing. The kund was for spending time, not only fetching water.
The worn edges
- Near the water: the step edges are rounded and polished by centuries of bare feet, far more than near the top.
- A map of footsteps: you see exactly where people walked most.
The lane around it
- Walk round the outside: houses, small temples and the walls of old havelis.
- Amer as a town: children going to school, women carrying water, old men on their doorsteps.
The fort above
- Look up from the rim: Jaigarh's walls run along the ridge.
- One valley: on a clear day you see how town, fort and water system fit together.
The sound of the place
Stand still at the rim for a minute and listen. You'll hear pigeons, a temple bell, a voice echoing off the water. Before engines, this would have been one of the quietest places in Amer, and on an early morning it still is.
- Sheltered: the tank sits back from the road, and its stone walls soften the noise of the town.
Why stepwells fell silent, and how they came back
Within living memory, many of Rajasthan's stepwells were filled with rubbish and forgotten. Our parents' generation watched it happen.
Piped water and hand pumps: when they came in the twentieth century, the old tanks lost their purpose.
Neglect: nobody needed a hundred steps for water. Many stepwells silted up or became dumps. Some collapsed, others were locked and left.
Facts to know
- Decline
- Twentieth century, piped water
- Revival
- Recent decades
- Who restores
- State, local bodies, trusts, owners
- The tide turned: photographers and architects began to see stepwells as some of India's most extraordinary buildings.
- Restoration: state and local authorities, trusts and private owners started cleaning and restoring them.
- Care and crowds: so close to Amber Fort, Panna Meena has become one of the most photographed of all.
- Why the steps close: it protects the stone, and reminds everyone this is a heritage structure, not a stage set.
- A richer visit: a building that served a town for centuries, nearly vanished, and is cared for again. Our piece on sustainable travel in Rajasthan explains how we visit such places.
Panna Meena among Rajasthan's stepwells
Once you've seen one stepwell, you'll want to see them all. Rajasthan has hundreds, and each region built them differently.
Small and intimate: that is Panna Meena's character.
The most dramatic nearby: the Chand Baori at Abhaneri, about two hours east of Jaipur on the Agra road.
Where to see more
- Abhaneri
- Chand Baori, two hours east
- Bundi
- Raniji ki Baori
- Jodhpur
- Toorji ka Jhalra
- Patan, Gujarat
- Rani ki Vav, UNESCO
- Older and deeper: thousands of steps in a vast inverted pyramid, often compared with Panna Meena for the same crossing stairs.
- Bundi: in Bundi, the Raniji ki Baori has carved gateways and pillared galleries descending to the water.
- Jodhpur: the Toorji ka Jhalra, beautifully restored in the heart of the old city.
- Across the border: the Rani ki Vav at Patan in Gujarat, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with walls of hundreds of sculptures.
- Compare them: our journal piece on the stepwells of Rajasthan.
What to pair with Panna Meena
The kund sits in the middle of the best walk in Amer. Everything here is within a short stroll or a five-minute drive.
Pair it with
- First
- Amber Fort, at opening
- Next door
- Anokhi Museum, Jagat Shiromani
- Late afternoon
- Jaigarh and Nahargarh
Amber Fort
- A few minutes away: the great palace-fortress of the Kachwahas.
- The order: the fort first, at opening time, then walk or drive down to the kund mid-morning.
The Anokhi Museum of Hand Printing
A short walk: in a restored sixteenth-century haveli once called the Chanwar Palkiwalon ki Haveli.
- Its rescue: bought in the late 1970s by the family behind Anokhi, the Jaipur block-printing house founded in 1970. The restoration won a UNESCO conservation award in 2000, and the museum opened in 2005.
- The craft: block printing from carving to dyeing, and a printer usually works in the courtyard. Calm and cool, a perfect next stop.
The Jagat Shiromani temple
A queen's memorial: built in the early seventeenth century by Man Singh's queen, Kanakwati, in memory of their son Jagat Singh.
- Mirabai's Krishna: local tradition says its image is the very one the poet-saint of Mewar worshipped at Chittorgarh.
- The gateway: one of the finest carved marble gateways in Rajasthan, with a shrine to Garuda before it.
- When: while the priests are at their morning rites.
Jaigarh and Nahargarh
- Save them for late afternoon: Jaigarh's walls give the best view down onto Amber.
- Sunset: Nahargarh is the place for it, over Jaipur.
A morning in Amer, with the kund at its heart
This is the plan we use with our own guests. It keeps you one step ahead of the crowds all morning.
- A full day: our Amer destination page adds the ridge forts in the evening.
- In a longer stay: our Jaipur itinerary guide shows how Amer fits into two, three or four days.
Seven to half past nine, the fort
- Leave early: stop briefly at Jal Mahal, and reach Amber Fort as the gates open.
- Inside: walk up the ramp and spend two hours with your guide.
Half past nine to ten, chai in the town
- Down into old Amer: a glass of chai at a stall by the fort road, with the walls rising above you.
Ten to eleven, the kund and the temple
- Half an hour at the kund: while the light is still slanting.
- Then the temple: Jagat Shiromani, nearby.
Eleven to noon, the printers
- The Anokhi Museum: end the morning in its cool rooms.
- Lunch: back at your hotel with a rest, or at the restaurant inside the fort.
Where to stay nearby
Amer has very few hotels, so we base guests in Jaipur, about twenty to thirty minutes away in the early morning.
The Amer side of the walled city: The Raj Palace and Samode Haveli are the closest city stays.
On the Delhi road: Fairmont Jaipur, just north of Amer.
Facts to know
- Closest in Jaipur
- The Raj Palace, Samode Haveli
- North of Amer
- Fairmont Jaipur
- In the hills
- Alila Fort Bishangarh
- Lunch
- 1135 AD, inside Amber Fort
- A little further: Rambagh Palace and The Oberoi Rajvilas, easy before the traffic.
- A night in the hills: Alila Fort Bishangarh, about an hour and a half north.
- Compare them: our luxury hotels in Jaipur guide.
- Lunch after: 1135 AD inside Amber Fort serves a royal Rajasthani menu in painted rooms, or drive back for a long lunch and rest before the ridge forts.
- In the town: sweet shops near the fort road fry kachori and jalebi in the morning, and roadside chai is part of any Amer visit. Our food of Jaipur guide lists more.
