Underground Shrine Queens Stepwell Patan

SR No.: 007002
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jaikishandas Sadani
Publisher: B J Institute of Learning & Research
Publication Year: 1998
Total Pages: 74
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 3 MB

Page 6

and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon along with purāņic myths and literary lores. The artists depict the temporal and the spiritual as well as the emotional and the reflective through deites, maidens, saints and animals. In the aesthetic panorama of life depicted in this monument, 'the artists have brought down the divine on the Earth and raised man to meet the divinity on the Earth.' '
The author classifies the deities under the heads of Visnu, Brahmā, Śiva, Śakti and so on. The image of Sesaśāyi Visņu, presented here in three panels, is naturally associated with reservoirs. Among the 24 forms of four-armed Visņu, 15 are recognised here. The author draws our attention to the conspicuous absence of the first two incarnations among the ten major incarnations of Visņu. Here Balarāma figures in place of Krsna as an incarnation. Brahmā is presented in two images. Siva figures in a standing as well as a sitting posture, generally along with his consort Umā. Siva is also depicted in his Kalyāṇasundara form. In this step-well composite images occur in the forms of Hari-Hara and Hari-Hara-Pitāmaha-Arka. Gauri is here depicted in 12 forms. Here the Mātņkās are presented in eight forms in place of the usual seven ones. Among other gods and goddesses figure Ganesa, Sūrya, Indra, Agni, Kubera, Varuna, Bhairava, Hanuman, Sarasvati and Sūryāņi as well as the consorts of the other various gods. The author described the images of these divinites in his first two lectures
The third lecture was devoted to celestial and human beauties including the varied types of Nāyikās and Nāgakanyās. The author also makes a passing reference to various narratives from the Great Epics.
In the concluding section the author has aptly shown how the different Rasas are expressed in the various images depicted here. The author who possesses an aesthetic approach to arts, aptly concludes his book with an aesthetic remark : 'As we behold
of Queen's Step-well, we are transported to a realm where eternal beauty floats on the cosmic waters of the well. This grand monument is the sweestest song of Queen Udayamati culminating in cadence of prayers'.
I congratulate Shri Sadani for depicting the various splendid sculptures of the Queen's Step-well at Patan so vividly and so interestingly. Elucidated through a number of illustrations his depiction supplies a valuable monograph on the splendid sculptures carved on the various parts of the superb ancient monument preserved in the ruins of the metropolis of the Caulukya Period.
25th March, 1998 Ahmadabad
Hariprasad G. Shastri
Retd. Director,
B. J. Institute of Learning & Research,
Ahmadabad-9