After visiting sights within Ahmedabad, we headed outside the city for a look at various sites, including wells and temples. Due to the unpredictable amount of rainfall in the dry areas of Gujarat and Rajasthan, water is continuously collected in underground tanks and wells for later use. In Gujarat, a number of intricately carved stepwells or 'wav'es can be found. Adelaj has a beautiful example of a stepwell built in 1499. Popular legend (according to these two locals who told us the story) has it that the 5 Pandava brothers built 7 wells, including this one around Gujarat in one night. This type of stepwell has a large vertical shaft going down into the well. 
Built around this shaft are beautifully carved columns and patios. We scrambled up to the top of a crumbling winding staircase to peer down into the well and edged around the very narrow sides of the shaft. A very shady resting place!
We then drove to the Sun Temple at Modhera. If Adalaj, this place was even more spectacular. It covers an area of 100 square meters and is in a rectangular shape with triangular steps at the water level, while up above are 108 (considered an auspicious number) shrines with carvings of stories of Shiva, the Mahabharat, and the Ramayana. This temple preceded the Konarak temple in Orissa by 200 years.
The Sun Temple is an example of one of the many temples that are no longer in active use but still exude a powerful presence. Everywhere we went in restuarants and hotels in the area, we saw posters advertising the Sun Temple, but when we were there, the only other people were some restoration workers. It's quite a shame that such sights don't attract more visitors. as the temple facade and interiors is heavily carved with picture of gods, goddesses, animals and humans. Inside the temple, the arches are beautifully carved torans and on the ceilings are lifelike lotus flowers.
In contrast to the silence at Modhera, we also went to a very much in use temple at Akshardan. Akshardan sprawls over 23 acres and includes a huge Swaminarayan temple, an educational facility dedicated to peace and the power of positive thought, a children's part, and the ultimate 'edu-tainment' experience- walking in Swami Narayan's footsteps and understanding how he came to espouse his beliefs and how his teachings have brought peace to humanity.
There are hundreds of people queued in line to walk through the air conditioned rooms that having animatronic figures and voice-overs telling the story of Swami Narayan's life. It all felt kinda Disneyland-ish to me! And, true to form, the last stop on the tour was the book/souvenir shop.
-Smruti
Comments