Folklore of Wells: Being a Study of Water-Worship in East and West

Wells have always been more than holes in the ground. They are thresholds, places where the human world touches something older and stranger. In this pioneering study, Rustom Pestonji Masani maps the sacred geography of water across Eastern and Western civilizations, revealing how wells became temples, how springs became oracles, and how the simple act of drawing water became a ritual laden with millennia of meaning. Masani traces the spirits that dwell in springs and the prayers spoken over buckets, the offerings dropped into deep waters and the taboos that surrounded them. What emerges is not a catalog of curiosities but a profound argument about human beings: that we have always known, in our bones, that water is not merely a resource but a mystery. This is a book for anyone who has ever stood at the edge of a well and felt, without knowing why, that they were standing at the edge of something.