RBI launched a new 100 rupee banknote in 2018. Banknotes now use Gujarat’s Rani ki Vav instead of Goecha La. Shaped like an inverted temple, this is the only Vav of its kind. Let’s take a look at its story.
The image of a majestic building might be thought of as an ancient palace, located opposite the ancient mosque and Magbala-one of the few in the small town of Gujarat. For many years, this monument has been Patan’s symbol of the world. However, Indians across the country will now keep its photos in their wallets. As the background of a series of 100 rupee banknotes, the Vav design on the currency is a testament to the country’s cultural history. But this is only a faint reflection of the magnificence of the stepwell that has disappeared in the sands of time for thousands of years.
Anhilward Patan
Strong bearded men push carts around, young boys use rickshaws to transport tourists; like other small towns in India, Patan shows the unconventional combination of shabby and amazing, traditional and modern. Patan was founded by Vanraj Singh Chavda in 746 AD and was formerly the capital of Gujarat. Anhilvad Patan is the previous name of the town. This period is considered to be the golden age of Gujarat. In these years, the city has been a prosperous commercial center.
The emperor was the main supporter of art and architecture, and they built many civic and religious buildings around the city. The old town where Vav is located may still be able to see part of the walls of the former fortress. Locals say that Babra Bout built a fort under the command of a king in Patan overnight. There are also the remains of old houses and the huge Darwazas, which must have been the entrance and departure point of the town before.
Rani Kee Waff
When entering ancient Patan, visitors will be greeted by signs and they will guide them to a place called Rani Ki Vav or Rani Ni Vav locally. However, Rani Ki Vav’s large scale and excellent craftsmanship set it apart. Some people think that Vav is just clogging over time. “All that is visible is the top of the well. We drank water from there because people thought it would help treat acute coughs. We didn’t know there were so many things down there,” a local resident recalled.
To the ignorant, Vav is like Baori or Bawdi, a step well. Vav is an ancient water storage system originally built in the third millennium BC, and has since been adopted by many dynasties and kingdoms. In the past, kings would drill wells in different places around his kingdom to ensure that there was never a shortage of water. Vav’s is designed to allow people to enter the water storage area through the stairs.
There are still traces of these step wells in western and northern India, some of which are hundreds of years old, while others are thousands of years old. Today, I am visiting one of the wells. It is called the “Rani Step Well”. The history of’Rani ki Vav’ can be traced back more than 900 years ago and has attracted several tourists. This step well was designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2014 and is the pinnacle of step well craftsmanship. In most cases, rulers built such monuments for their queens after their deaths. But here is the opposite.
During the excavation, a marble statue engraved with Maharani Shri Udaymati was found in Vav-which means that Vav was built by the Queen. Rani ki Vav was built by Rani Udayamati, the daughter of Ra Khengar, the ruler of Chudasama. Vav was erected on the Saraswati River in Patan to commemorate her husband, King Pima I of the Chorukya or Solanki dynasty, who ruled parts of modern Gujarat in the 11th century.
This stepped well in the Maru-Gurjara architectural style is not only elaborate and gorgeous, but also displays complex skills and expertise. Rani Ki Vav is shaped like an inverted temple and is the only Vav of its kind. It is also one of the oldest and best step wells in Gujarat and it is in very good condition. Visiting this breathtaking and exquisite step well reminds us of Patan’s previous splendor. Sandstone forms the entire building. The fragments of the pillars at the entrance towards the top of the steps are believed to be the vestiges of Kirti Toran, the ritual entrance of Vav.
Stepped corridors meander down to the reservoir, passing through a pavilion or terrace with columns. Descending to Vav is like stepping into a time machine, teleporting you to another world, or being lured into a lovely illusion, only when you reappear on the manicured ground that now surrounds the heritage monument, its magic The curse will be broken. The well is deeper than that. Rani ki Vav is 64 meters long, 20 meters wide and 27 meters deep. More than 800 sculptures can be seen on the walls and aisles of Vav.
These sculptures are centered on all the incarnations and incarnations of Vishnu, such as Lord Rama, Vamona, Narosinha, Mahisa Suramadini, Kalki, etc. Vishnu and his wife Lakshmi, Shiva Parvati, Brahma and his spouse, Indra, Cooper, Hanuman and others are all sculptures. Then there are statues of Apsara and Nagakanya. Although some sculptures are in a nearly perfect state, due to the passage of time, other sculptures have lost limbs or blurred facial features, requiring visitors to put them in context to recognize them.
You will also see cracks in many niches and walls, which indicates that some statues have disappeared. The three incarnations of Vishnu-Nalsimha, Makia, and Kulma-are among the sculptures that have disappeared, but it is not certain whether all three existed in the first place. After the Saraswati River evaporated, it was covered with silt for about seven thousand years. In the 1890s, when archaeologists Henry Cousens and James Burgess visited the seven-story Maru-Gurjara-style “Vav”, they could only see beams and a few columns.
The step well was opened and cleaned in the 1940s, and refurbished by ASI in the 1980s. Its characteristic sculptures are comparable to those seen in the Vimalavasahi Temple in Mount Abu and the Sun Temple in Modra. This ancient step well from the 11th century is a unique example of Indian underground architecture. It demonstrates the extraordinary ability to decompose large spaces into smaller volumes according to ideal aesthetic proportions. Bathing in Vav’s water is believed to cure many diseases.
The flora found in and around the complex is said to be responsible for the magical consistency of the water. The Waff River is connected to the old city of Sidhpur through a 30-kilometer tunnel, which was previously used for safe transportation during the invasion. Although relatively unknown, Rani Ni Vav is not the only product of its kind in India. Agrasen ki Baoli in Delhi, Rajon ki Baoli in Mehrauli, Adalaj ni Vav in Gandhinagar and Dada Harir Stepwell in Ahmedabad are all similar to Rani Ki Vav.
Some other famous step wells in India include Rani ki Baori in Bondi, Shahi Baoli in Lucknow, Chand Baori near Jaipur, Birkha Bawri in Jodhpur, Toor Ji ki Baori in Jodhpur, and Panna Meena in Amer. ka Kund.
