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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
K. Forbes, British Administrator in 'Hindu annals of the province of Gujarat' recorded the qeen's stepwell at Patan.15
Among the beautiful and ornamented stone step-wells (vāva) that have survived in Gujarat, he most ancient one is the Rāņi-vāva.
This step-well is located at a distance of two kilometers Northwest to the city of Patan. It is on the bank of the river Sarasvati. There is the old castle, and the Sahasralinga lake beside the step-well. There is a reference in the Prabandha-chintamani, about this step-well being built by the Queen Udayamati, the wife of the Chaulukya king Bhimadeva I (1022-1064 CE.), the mother of Karnadeva. Queen Udayamati was refined culturally, compassionate, lover of art, and religious-minded, about which one can get a glimpse on seeing the architecture and rich sculpture of this step-well. It was excavated and repaired by the Department of Archaeology of the Government of India in the year 1986. The beautiful idol of the Queen Udayamati has also been found from it. One can realize on the basis of the rich sculptural remnants found herein that this step-well has the best carvings of Gujarat. The sculptures in this stepwell can be compared with those in the Sun Temple of Modherā and the temple of Adinātha on the Mount Abu.
The construction of this step-well is in the East-West direction. Its entrance is in the East, while the well (küpa) is in the West. Originally, this step-well was seven storeyed. As per the types of the step-wells given in the works on architecture, this step-well should be taken to belong to the 'Nandā' type. At present the entrance, the walls of both sides, steps, some pavilions, the backside wall of the well and five storeys have been preserved. There are seven plastered floors in the well. Looking up from the lower part the sculptures have been preserved up to the sixth floor. The first one has collapsed. This step-well is 65 meters long and 20 meters broad. The portion of the well is 32 meters deep.16
The landing and side walls or draw-well horizontally, is divided into several sections corresponding to the stories of the step-well. Each of these section is again divided, vertically, by means of 8 dwarf pillars and thereby giving rise to corresponding nine stambha antarala i.e. intermediate wall-space, which is filled in with figure sculptures of Gods and Goddesses. However, he two extreme ends of the wall of the draw well attaching to the frontal broad rectangular landing do not contain dwarf pillars at these extreme ends.
The horizontal arrangement of the wall courses at each storey displays the mouldings akin to the Janghā mouldings of the mandovara. They are from botom to top Kani (astragal). Andharika (recess), Kapotali (cymarecta) adorned with thagarika (i.e. archand pediment). Above it is a small course of the Janghā moulding adorned with niched seated figures of Gods and Goddesses, superimposed with a stepped-out pediment. Above the small Janghā moulding there rests, the prominent, Janghā moulding separated by a deep recess. The Janghā moulding here, likewise, contains
SOME UNIQUE STEP-WELLS AND TANKS OF GUJARATAND RAJASTHAN
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