In Photos A Peek Inside The Rani-Ki-Vav In Gujarat

Located on the banks of the Saraswati, Rani-ki-Vav was initially built as a memorial to the 11th-century Chalukya king Bhima I. Situated in Patan in Gujarat, the stepwell's construction is attributed to Udaymati, Bhima I's wife. The best and one of the most significant specimens of its kind, the stepwell is shaped like an upside-down temple to emphasise the sacredness of water. With sculptural panels, it is separated into seven tiers of steps.

Only the well shaft and a few pillars were visible when Henry Cousens and James Burgess visited it in the 1890s when it was fully submerged beneath the ground. It was characterised as a sizeable pit that was 87 metres deep. In &ldquoTravels in Western India&rdquo, James Tod stated that the stepwell's materials were repurposed for another stepwell constructed in contemporary Patan. The Indian Archaeological Survey renovated it in the 1980s and was included on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in India in 2014.

Rani ki vav is regarded as the best and one of Gujarat's most notable examples of stepwell architecture. It was constructed at the pinnacle of stepwell craftsmanship and Maru-Gurjara architectural style, demonstrating mastery of this intricate method and the beauty of detail and proportion.

In addition to its architectural design and technological innovations in water supply and structural stability, Rani-ki-Vav is impressive for its sculptural embellishment, which displays excellent creative expertise. The interior of the stepwell has a distinctive aesthetic character derived from the symbolic motifs and sculptures, as well as the ratio of filled and vacant spaces. 

There are more than 500 major sculptures and roughly a thousand smaller ones, many of which incorporate religious, symbolic, and secular imagery and literary references. The stepwell's decoration shows the entire cosmos as being populated by gods and goddesses, heavenly beings, men and women, monks, priests, laypeople, animals, fish, and birds, as well as plants and trees.

If you want to visit Rani-ki-Vav, intercity buses from Ahmedabad to Patan take roughly 3 hours, and 1 hour from Mehsana. Patan has a railway station also. The nearest airport from Patan is Ahmedabad, situated at a distance of 125 km.