Underground Shrine Queens Stepwell Patan

Author(s): Jaikishandas Sadani
Publisher: B J Institute of Learning & Research

Page 49

Underground Shrine: Queen's step-well at Patan
Dhara, Dhruva, Pratyușa, Prabhāṣa and Soma. In the Visņu Purāņa and Matsya Purana we have the long lists of their family. Their mothers, their wives and their children are all alluded to in details. The images of Vasus are amply enshrined in the reservoirs.
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Agastya is a venerable sage who is born of a pitcher. He is also a popular sage of the Vedas. In Rgveda several ṛcas and mantras are said to have been composed by him (Rg., 1.165.13-15, 166-169 etc.). In Queen's step-well he is shown as seated in padmāsana or lotus posture on a large decorated pitcher kumbha. His ascetic nature is revealed in his matted hair, long beard and loin cloth loosely covered with the upper garment uttariya. He is shown with four hands. The two rear hands hold lotuses while the other two are broken. The two small elephants on top of the panel are performing the abhiseka or pouring water for ablution while Kirit Mankodi identifies this image to be that of Agastya, P. C. Parikh recognises this to be the image of Dhanavantari. He was the great sage and an important 'ratna' jewel that emerged out of the ocean with the pitcher full of nectar at the time of Samudra Manthana, as described in the Puranas.
Nava Graha Pattika is a panel depicting the nine planets with Surya the sun occupying the central place. The canonical works give detailed description of each planet as god. Some have two hands and some have four. They have different weapons in hands. Some planets have their vahanas or the mounts enunciated in the texts. These deities are represented in the individual images of grahas but in the panels or Pattikās of Nava Graha or nine planets all these details are omitted. These panels are popularly engraved in virtually all the important temples in Gujarat. Yet in hands of Surya are lotuses. The two hands of moon also carry lotuses, the other planets have the rosary or at times water- pot kamaṇḍalu. The Nava Graha Paṭṭikās establish our cosmic relationship with the planets that swirl about in the infinite firmament. The nine planets are Surya (Sun), Candra (Moon), Mangala (Mars), Budha (Mercury), Bṛhaspati (Jupiter), Šukra (Venus), Śani (Saturn), Rahu (Neptune) and Ketu. These Paṭṭikās are carved with a view to pacify the planets for granting benediction and welfare to all the living beings. The tradition of Nava graha pattikās is common both in the temples of North India and South India.
Dancing Bhairava is the dreadful form of Śiva when he is engaged in the frightening dance of destruction. This is one of those sculptural pieces which are well preserved in the step-well as it has not suffered the erosion caused by weather. He has twenty hands. His eight right hands hold a dagger, a hand in striking gesture, a thunder bolt, a baton, kettle drum-"damaru", a noose-pasa, a snake, some object between the thumb and the finger. Ten left hands have some object between