Go to Gujarat!

What Big B had kick-started a few years ago had caught on and now Gujarat has become a hot destination, beckoning tourists at every turn of a festival and they have quite many.
Go to Gujarat!

HYDERABAD: What Big B had kick-started a few years ago had caught on and now Gujarat has become a hot destination, beckoning tourists at every turn of a festival and they have quite many. But the grandest is certainly the Navratri Festival.

Visiting Gujarat during Navratri can be a highly pleasurable, entertaining and an interesting experience. The whole state wears a festive look on these nine days: people dress up in their best ensembles planned and acquired almost over the whole year, fast during the day, feast in the evenings followed by energetic dances like “dandiya” and “garba” during the nights as vibrant music fills the air.

During my recent visit to Gujarat, I stayed in EKA Club, a luxury sports club in Ahmedabad. Lying down on my bed in the VIP suite, I had a 180 degrees view of the stadium.

If one can watch a live game chilling in the air-conditioned comfort, sprawled across the bed, sipping some choicest beverage, isn’t it pure bliss? The property’s kilometre-long corridors and the gigantic swimming pool give ample exercise and scope to burn the few hundred excess calories consumed from the festive menus in their elegantly furnished restaurants.

This year, I was fortunate to witness the inauguration of Navratri Festival in Ahmedabad, which was the most spectacular event I have seen in recent times. Held amidst much fanfare, the hundreds of dancers on a massive stage held the audience spellbound.

The next morning we left for Patan, which is a three-hour drive from Ahmedabad. Patan houses the famous stepwell “Rani ki Vav” on the banks of Saraswati River. This imposing monument is soon going to adorn the new 100-rupee currency note in pleasant lavender; a smaller note in dimension but sure to grab the eyeballs when it comes into circulation.

The banknote highlights the rich and diverse cultural heritage of India by projecting this 11th-century architectural wonder, which is now a UNESCO Heritage Site. Rani ki Vav was commissioned by Rani Udayamati in 1063 as a memorial to her husband King Bhimdev I of the Solanki dynasty.

As we reached Rani ki Vav, the sun was at its fiercest. Enduring the scorching heat I walked across reluctantly but once in the shade, it was quite cool as I explored the magnificent structure. Step wells are mostly found in Western India, and Gujarat alone boasts around 120. The origin of the step wells may be traced to reservoirs of the ancient cities of the Indus Valley Civilization such as ‘Dholavira’ and ‘Mohenjo-Daro’.

They are a distinctive form of subterranean water resource and storage systems on the Indian subcontinent and have been constructed since the 3rd millennium BC. They evolved over time from what was basically a pit in sandy soil towards elaborate multi-storey works of art and architecture. Though these wells were quite popular from 10th to 16th centuries, they lost their significance by the 19th century due to the introduction of water pumps and pipe-systems.

Rani-ki-Vav was built with exceptional craftsmanship in Maru-Gujarat architectural style, reflecting mastery of this complex technique with fine detailing in sculpture and design while serving as both religious and functional structures.

Devised as an inverted temple highlighting the sanctity of water, it is divided into seven levels of stairs with sculptural panels of high artistic quality; more than 500 major sculptures and over a thousand minor ones combine religious, mythological and secular imagery, often alluding to literary works. The fourth level is the deepest and leads into a rectangular tank. The well is located at the westernmost end of the edifice and consists of a shaft of 30 feet in diameter and almost 100 ft deep.

Rani-ki-Vav impresses not only with its architectural structure and technological achievements in water sourcing and structural stability, but also in particular with its sculptural decoration, of true artistic mastery. The figurative motifs and sculptures provide the step well’s interior with its unique aesthetic character; the well dramatically descends suddenly from a plain plateau, which strengthens the perception of this space. Every inch is filled with intricate carving: one entire panel was devoted to the famous “patola” designs of the time. It looked like “ikat in stone”.

Looking at all those exquisite sculptures, I imagined them coming alive, dressed in vibrant colours, wearing heavy jewellery, carrying pots to collect water while chatting with their “sahelis” on the latest fashion trends (of those days!); some of them indulging in gossip while someothers comparing notes on a wicked mother-in-law (saas) or even a worse sister-in-law (nanand). 

While men with roving eyes loitered longer even after quenching their thirst, the younger lot tried to steal a look at young damsels with their pretty faces covered in “ghunghats”. My imagination was running wild when the guide said it was time to leave. 

So back into the hot sun I walked, leaving the cool environs of the vav and the romantic scenes behind. Once I reached and sat down in the AC coach, the voices of yore faded and the images blurred, bringing me back into the reality of 21st century… though the cultural scene has not changed much now.

(The author is a documentary filmmaker and travel writer; she blogs at vijayaprataptravelandbeyond.com)

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com