Underground Shrine Queens Stepwell Patan

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

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Underground Shrine : Queen's step-well at Patan
calling the child on the mother's waist to come down. The small child is eagerly looking at the calling child. They are all set in a mango grove Tamrakunja) as bunches of mangoes are shown hanging in the back ground. This is a very beautiful composition of vatsalya. The mother has put on sparse ornaments. The bhāva or expression of the mother and the children, depicted on their faces, is very evocative of tender emotional feelings.
Nāyikās or Devanganās : Over 200 panels are dedicated to these Nāyikās which heighten the beauty of the step-well. It is a superb picturisation in which godhead, gods and humans all mingle in each other to express Truth, Goodness and Beauty. In these images of maidens to use Jaishankar Prasads' words :
"GT Fiche Tel"
"Beauty has transformed into visual form.” The music and rythm of life is as it were frozen on the stone walls of the step-well to express its eternal joy. Is not Eternity best expressed in stone ? Stone is the timeless symbol which lasts the longest.
Darpaņa Sundari : It is a beautiful figure of a nāyikā wearing her earring. She is fully dressed donning beautiful ornaments. The necklace with inset jewels, a mangala sūtra and a long studed garland which is also bending with slight twist of the body, balance with a slight bend on the right foot. Moreover, mekhalā or a waist-band studded with jewels and rows of ornamented designs cling to it. The sārt is neatly folded and hangs between the thighs. Bracelets are worn around her wrists while anklets adorn her feet. It is a very elegant and graceful tall figure. The pointed nose and smiling face express the inner delight of the nāyikā. Her tender fingers are so artistically sculpted that you are reminded of the graceful fingers of Ajanta paintings. This is a unique figure that is completely preserved with no damage by weather at all. She is seen standing between two decorated pillars. A female attendent is standing near her feet carrying a basket on her head.
In another panel is the same theme of darpana sundari is expressed with another innovation. In this image the maiden is depicted as lining her eyes, with collyrium, while in another hand she holds the mirror. The whole panel shows a very graceful figure of a maiden lost in the self-admiration of her own beauty and enthrilled with it.
Nāyikā writing letter to her beloved is so well expressed in a standing figure which again has the back-ground of a mango grove with three-three mangoes hanging over the head of the nāyikā. She stands lost in abstraction with paper in one hand and the other hand holding a pen which she is dipping in the ink-pot. It is being