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Dear All,

The Department of Visual Arts is delighted to invite you to the fourth colloquium in the Visual Arts Colloquium Series, Spring 2026.

Title: Designing Water: Morphology and Histories of Water Architecture in India

Speaker: Dr. Jutta Jain-Neubauer, Art Historian 

Date: Tuesday, 31st March, 2026

Time: 1: 30 PM

Venue: Visual Art Studio (near sports block)

Abstract: This illustrated talk will examine the co-relation between water and space – natural or built – and will bring into focus the aesthetic, social, economic and ritual connotation of water bodies in historical perspective. Their placement within towns or villages has defined social relations within settlements, while their serial location along the caravan routes charted intercity trade, mobility and pilgrimage, leading to a boost in urbanisation. When architecture engages with water, it designs, curates and moulds it into social, ecological and even sacred spaces. The cultural significance of water architecture in India, being rooted in the prevailing regional as well as canonical practices, forms a marker of age-old technological know-how, sustainability, trade and commerce, social conventions and religious beliefs and customs. The talk will deal with the histories of water monuments in terms of their structural typologies as well as their hydrological ingenuity ; art-historical and socio-cultural dimensions; gender issues (women’s patronage of water monuments and wells being primarily women’s spaces); as well as enactments of social discrimination regarding access to water.

Speaker's Bio: Jutta Jain-Neubauer is an art historian engaged in researching India’s water monuments for several decades now. Her book The Stepwells of Gujarat (1981) is considered a pioneering work on the subject. Her book Water Design. Environment and Histories (ed., 2017) explores the interconnection of the spatial topographies, aesthetic conceptualisation of underground water structures and the ecology of water. Her research on concepts of urbanism in connection with water and water strategies of the Tughluq rulers (1320-1413) resulted in her essay The Tughluqs and their Water Strategies (in: Accessing Water, ed. Sara Keller, Univ. Erfurt).

Other areas of her research include the comparative study of canonical tenets (shastra) and architectural practice (prayoga) with special reference to the northern Indian temple entrance.

We look forward to your active participation in the talk.

Warm regards,

Visual Arts Department