The Forgotten Stepwell Of Ahmedabad - Baai Harir Sultani VAV

The stepwell was built in 1500 by Baai Harir, a household lady of Mahmud Begada according to the Persian inscription in the stepwell. She was the superintendent of the royal harem.

Baai Harir built a mosque and a tomb in which she was buried. The well bears two inscriptions, one in Sanskrit on the south, and one in Arabic on the north wall, of the first gallery.

The Arabic writing reads:
This holy and wholesome water; the splendid travellers' rest-house enclosed on four sides by carved and painted walls, and a grove of fruit trees with their fruit, a well, and a pool of water for the use of man and heist, were built in the reign of the Sultan of the Sultans of the age, established by the grace of God and of the faith, Abul Fath Mahmud Shah, son of Muhammad Shah, son of Ahmed Shah, son of Muhammad Shah, son of Muzaffar Shah the Sultan, may God keep his kingdom. Dated the metropolis of the kingdom the 2nd of Jamadi-ul-awwal in the 26th year of the reign.

A Sanskrit inscription says that the step-well was built in December 1499 AD. It was during the reign of Mahmud Shah that Bai Harir Sultani, locally known as Dhai Harir, built the step-well. The name later corrupted into Dada Hari. It costed 3,29,000 Mahmudis (₹ 3 lakh) at that time. The ornate step-well has spiral staircases pieced into the sidewall of the well shaft and descending to the different platform levels.

Reff.
History of Ahmedabad,
Arabic History of Gujarat by Haji Dabir