Rani Ki Vav: What’s The Story?

In 2018, the Reserve Bank of India issued new Rs 100 notes. Instead of Goecha La, the note now has Gujarat’s Rani ki Vav. It is the only Vav of its kind, shaped like an inverted temple. Let’s have a look at the tale behind it.

A stately structure that could be mistaken for an old palace stands alongside a historic Masjid and Maqbara, one of just a few in this little Gujarat town. For many years, this monument has served as Patan’s global identifier. Indians around the country, on the other hand, will now carry its image in their wallets. The Vav pattern on the currency, which serves as the backdrop for a series of 100 rupee notes, attempts to depict the country’s cultural history. But it’s only a sliver of the stepwell’s splendour, lost to the sands of time for millennia.

Anhilvad Patan

Patan, like other tiny towns in India, exemplifies an unusual mix of worn and astonishing, ancient and modern, as brawny moustached men wheel carts around and young lads shuttle tourists in rickshaws. Patan, the former capital of Gujarat, was founded in AD 746 by Vanraj Singh Chavda. The town was previously known as Anhilvad Patan. Gujarat’s golden age is regarded as this period. The city was a major commercial centre throughout these years.

The emperors were strong supporters of the arts and constructed numerous civic and religious facilities across the city. In the old town, where the Vav is located, parts of the ramparts of what was once a fort may still be seen. According to locals, Babra Bhoot pitched the Fort under the command of one of Patan’s rulers one night. There are also ruins of old homes and enormous Darwaza, which presumably have served as the town’s entrance and exit points in the past.

Rani Ki Vav

Travellers entering historic Patan are greeted by signboards directing them to Rani Ki Vav, or Rani Ni Vav, as it is known locally. Rani Ki Vav stands out for its sheer size and outstanding craftsmanship. Some people believe that the Vav just clogged up over time. “All that could be seen was the top of the well. We drank the water since it was supposed to help with acute coughs. We had no idea there was so much more lurking beneath the surface,” a local recalls.

For the clueless, a Vav, like a Baori or Bawdi, is a stepwell. Vavs are ancient water storage systems that were initially built in the third millennium BC and have since been embraced by several dynasties and kingdoms. In yore, the kings would have wells drilled in various locations around their realm to ensure that there was never a scarcity of water. Vavs were designed to allow people to access water storage places by descending flights of stairs.

The relics of ancient stepwells may still be found throughout Western and Northern India, some of which are hundreds of years old and others that are thousands of years old. Today, I’m at Rani’s stepwell, which is one of these wells. Rani ki Vav has a 900-year heritage that draws a large number of tourists. UNESCO listed this stepwell as a World Heritage Site in 2014. It displays the peak of stepwell construction. The majority of the time, rulers construct such memorials for their queens after they pass away. In this case, though, the situation is the polar opposite.

A marble statue with Maharani Shri Udaymati engraved on it was found within the Vav during excavation – implying the Vav was built by the queen. Rani ki Vav was built by Rani Udayamati, daughter of Ra Khengar, the Chudasama monarch of Junagadh. The Vav was erected on the banks of the Saraswati River in Patan as a tribute to her husband, King Bhima I of the Chaulukya or Solanki dynasty, who ruled parts of modern-day Gujarat in the 11th century.

This stepwell in Maru-Gurjara architectural style is not only carefully crafted and gorgeous, but it also exhibits complicated skills and expertise. Shaped like an inverted temple, Rani Ki Vav is the only Vav of its sort. Also one of Gujarat’s oldest and best stepwells, in exceptionally good condition. Visiting this breathtakingly exquisite stepwell was a reminder of Patan’s previous splendour. Sandstone makes up the whole building. A fragment of a column at the entryway, towards the top of the steps, is thought to be the remnants of the Kirti Toran – the Vav’s ceremonial entrance.

Stepped hallways wind their way down to the reservoir, passing through pillared pavilions or terraces. Descending into the Vav is like stepping into a time machine that transports you to another world, or being lured into a lovely illusion whose spell is broken only when you resurface on the manicured grounds that now surround the heritage monument. The well is deeper than that. Rani ki Vav has a length of 64 metres, a width of 20 metres, and a depth of 27 metres. Over 800 sculptures may be seen on the Vav’s walls and the aisles.

These sculptures are centred on Vishnu in all of his incarnations and avatars such as Lord Rama, Vamana, Narasimha, Mahishasuramardini, Kalki, and others. Vishnu with his wife Lakshmi, Shiva-Parvati, Brahma with his spouse, Indra, Kuber, Hanuman, and others are among the sculptures. Then there are Apsara and Nagakanya statues. While some of the sculptures are in near-perfect condition, others have lost limbs or have obscured facial characteristics due to the passage of time, requiring the visitor to situate them in the context to recognise them.

You will also see fissures in many niches and walls, suggesting the disappearance of some statues. Three Vishnu avatars – Narsimha, Matsya, and Kurma – are among the sculptures that have vanished, however, it is uncertain if all three were initially present. After the Saraswati river evaporated, it was covered in silt for roughly seven millennia. Only the beams and a few pillars were visible when archaeologists Henry Cousens and James Burgess visited the seven-story Maru-Gurjara style ‘Vav’ in the 1890s.

The stepwell was uncovered and cleaned in the 1940s and renovated in the 1980s by the ASI. It features sculptures comparable to those seen at Mount Abu’s Vimalavasahi temple and Modhera’s Sun temple. This 11th-century ancient stepwell is an example of a unique Indian underground architectural construction. It illustrates the exceptional capacity to break large spaces into smaller volumes following ideal aesthetic proportions. Bathing in the Vav’s waters was thought to be a cure-all for many diseases.

The flora discovered in and around the complex were supposedly responsible for the water’s magical consistency. The Vav connects to the old town of Siddhpur through a 30 km long tunnel that was previously used, for safe transit during the invasions. Despite its relative obscurity, Rani Ni Vav is not the only one 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 all bear a resemblance to Rani Ki Vav.

Some of the other famous stepwells in India include Rani ki Baori in Bundi, Shahi Baoli in Lucknow, Chand Baori near Jaipur, Birkha Bawri in Jodhpur, Toor Ji ki Baori in Jodhpur, and Panna Meena ka Kund in Amer.

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