Rani Ki Vav -A World Heritage

It was quite sunny day of April. I got down from Gujarat state bus and caught an auto to reach museum of Patan in just one hour. The museum is very small and I think started recently. There were a few sculptures and paintings in the museum. The caretaker was courteous enough to start audio show for me. I was the only visitor at this moment. Just after me 3 more young visitors also appeared.

After seeing museum I headed on foot for Rani Ki Vav which is just about a kilometer from museum. There were a few kiosks and place is kept very neat and clean. This neat ecology and surroundings adds an extra effect on visitors.

This 1000 year old heritage Vav (step Well) is at a town Patan which is 125 KM from distt. Mahesana, Gujarat, India. River Saraswati flows through town. Old name of Patan can be found in history as Anahillapura. This temple was built by Rani Udaymati, widow of Solanki king Bheemdev-I in 11th century AD. She built is as those days was the belief and custom was to pay homage to loved deceased by making these type of step wells. So we can find many step wells (called Vav) in Rajasthan and Gujarat.

Location

Patan, Distt. Mahesana. 125 KM from Ahmadabad, 25 KM from Mahesana, in Gujarat state of India. Nearest airport Ahmadabad. Nearest railway station Mahesana. Better choose bus or Taxi to go to Patan

My Itinerary

Gujarat is such a state that most of the tourist places are scattered like fins of star fish and not possible to cover in single itinerary and travel by taxi also could be costly. But even small villages are connected by buses (non AC) in India these days.

So I decide to cover all these places by local bus.

Day-1 and 2 : Dholavira
Day 3 – Lothal
Day 4: Half day heritage tour Ahmadabad
Day 5 – Patan, Modhera

Beautiful 125 KM road leading to Patan via Mahesana. Photo taken from bus.

ASI maintains this temple in best possible way. Hats off.

There is entry ticket and we have to walk about 0.5 KM premises to reach Rani Ki Vav. There are guides available but I think even security guards there can explain about this temple excellently and at nominal tip.

Right in front of Rani Ki Vav. Out of 7 storeys only 5 are visible from top.

As soon as we enter we see some designs which are used in world famous Patan saris even today.

Patan sari designs which are world famous and ranges from 10K to 1 million.

Every inch of this step well walls is decorated with carvings, niches.

Niche of all Hindu God and Goddesses in entire walls of the Vav.

I could not locate even an inch without carving.

It is very interesting to learn and acquaint us from the various niche in this temple. A few I am mentioning which will help you to identify these God and Goddesses in other temples as well.

Normally they are identified by the chariot they use, weapon they have and clothes they use or atlast with some legend story around them such as sleeping Vishnu on serpent.

Balarama- You can identify this by plough, a lotus, a pestle and wine. You know normally Balarama is identified by jar of wine in hand but Gujarat tradition has abhorence to wine and non vegetarian. So wine is replaced by citrus fruit.

He is Kalki- He will be incarnation of Lord Vishnu and will destroy the present Evil forces on Earth. As a sovereign king he is wearing crown, armed with sword and a dagger tied to his waist and a discuss in other hand. See his long and protective boots. His fourth hand is free holding a pot in which woman is pouring wine. As per guide those days wine was sold by ladies and shows the old traditions.

Varahv-A well known incarnation of Lord Vishnu known across whole of India. Story is that a demon had drowned Earth in ocean and Vishnu in boar form lifted the earth. Why he took incarnation of boar is that boar cleans the dirt and so he also cleaned the earth after saving it. Just note the goddess earth loving her savior. Also note the pride, satisfaction and virility on face of boar.

Bhairav – 20 armed dancing Bhairava. he holds a dagger, a drum, cobra, While left hand has tail of cobra, a goad, noose, a skull bowl, human head, fish. His wild dog is dragging a corpse, licking fresh blood.

Vamana – There is a famous story of incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Notice is belly and how the sculpture is made to look like dwarf. Right hand holds Rudraksh mala and left hand umbrella. The sign on his chest shows he is none other than Lord Vishnu.

Four handed Parvati Lord Shiva performing penance with the wish of marrying Lord Shiva. Her father was against marrying her seeing the careless and typical life style of lord Shiva. The arch over head represents “nav Grihas” identified one as wearing crown as Sun. See the beed count kriya in her hand. It indicates hard penance as standing on one foot and wearing sparse clothe even in winter.

Nag Kanya – In olden time nag kanya was used for spying.

Female Tantrik – Those days were the period of ” Siddhas” 9th century and in that cult females were allowed in tantrik world. This lady tantrik holds skull cup containing fish, and dandika fitted with skull and wearing ornaments of bone. This must have been a common sight in Gujarat, Assam area where “Siddha cult” had prevailed in 9th century till “Nath cult” originated from this cult. See the slipper design 1000 years ago.

Female figure- See how beautifully carved a thousand years ago. Skylark is a bird which only drinks the water on day of Poornima of Swati Nakshtra. Here it is shown as swallowing the water drops falling from the hair of this beautiful female figure. This is 11th century and we know in Hindi poetry “Shringar kaal” started from 1575 AD but in sculpture it started since the sculpture started. This particular sculpture shows a bathing beauty with the skylark which is swallowing its water droplets thinking as pearl.

Female figure- Notice each and every ornament garland, ear rings design, hair style, necklace design, design on pillars.

Vishnu sleeping on serpent- This image is such that it is visible from all 7 floors of the Rani Ki Vav. Amazing.

Mahisasur Mardini – Mahisasur was a deceptive demon described in Hindu and Sikh texts. who changed forms and finally killed by Goddess Durga. In some parts of South Asia worship Mahisasur for its enormous power. Even some tribes in India worship Mahisasur. he is considered as source of power and sometimes it is said that Mahisasur was an Indian powerful king who was killed by upper caste.

Lord Buddha – Notice that his clothes are coarse and simple as compared to depicted in other sculpture which right ascetic aspect. His earlobes are long depicting him as super human. The posture of foot shows him always moving which he really was.

Lord Rama – Do you notice any uniqueness in sculpture of Lord Rama and how you identify he is Rama? Uniqueness is he is four armed Rama. Rama and Parusurama were Kshatriya. he is holding bow so he is Rama, while nearby is Parushram also where is shown as carrying axe.

Hanuman – This is rare sculpture of Hanuman deified with FOUR ARMS. Else we see in form of Sevak of Lord Rama or savior of Rama, Lakshmana (with sanjeevni mountain). His one right arm rests on knee showing self assurance and confidence. In this extra left hand is an uprooted tree and other left hand is action. As per interpretation of guide, bigger demon indicates 7.5 years (saade saati), and younger demon is 2.5 years. This whole art reminds us to remember Hanuman during our adverse time of Saade Saati.

Now let us come to God and their consorts

Kartikeya and his consort- Identified by his chariot peacock.

Epilogue

This world heritage though well known in Gujarat is lesser known in India. Step wells were constructed in order to pay homage to deceased loved ones and this tradition was more prevalent in Gujarat and Rajasthan. But in all ways it is a unique creation and this task needs a very advanced sense of design and structural design. Is not it a Himalayan work to construct such structure which is 7 storeys deep below the ground and is rightly said as inverted pyramid in ASI books.