Steps into past: 1,500-year-old reservoir unearthed on Elephanta island

As we trudged through the scrub jungle on a hill on the Elephanta Island off the Mumbai coast on March 17, 2026, Abhijit Ambekar declared with a flourish, “We will show you the wonder-discovery of our excavation.” Professor Abhijit Dandekar chipped in, “It is a show-stopper.”

As we reached the trench, where several men and women were excavating the soil deep below, it was clear that it was a spectacular discovery. There it was: a series of steps leading to a reservoir below. In other words, it was a stepped reservoir or a reservoir built with a wide staircase of perfectly aligned stone blocks.