Buddhist cave complex and the Stepwells of the Uparkot Fort

I wrote about the early history of the Uparkot Fort and the fable of Rani Ranak Devi in my previous post. In this article we would visit the other two important monuments – the Buddhist Cave Complex – and the Stepwells of the Uparkot Fort in Junagadh

Buddhist cave complex of Uparkot Fort, Junagadh

We descended out of Ranakdevi’s palace on an eastward slope leading towards Adi-Kadi Vav and reached an old Buddhist cave complex on the way.

These caves were dug into a hillside in second century and were used by the Buddhist monks for meditation. The cave complex contains exquisitely carved pillars, entrances almost of the size of the modern doors, windows, assembly hall, and cells for meditation; it should be an ideal place for learning and self-reflection in solitude.

The cave group has been quarried in three tiers in a manner that even the lowest tier is also well-lit and ventilated.

The upper floor had a deep square hole at the center with verandas and spaces for balcony sitting known as Kakshasanas. The floor was clean and smooth, giving a feel of a mud house.

The lowest tier had meditation cells, a corridor and carved pillars. These pillars support the ceilings of the underground rooms.

The base and the shaft of these pillars and the walls around carry the decorative designs of figures, flowers and foliage. The decorative style has strong influence of Scythian and Greek art.

The time has taken its toll on these semi-reliefs. Today only a faint outline of these motifs remain.

The excavation of debris accumulated over the top-tier of these caves has revealed potteries and coins dated to around the third and the fourth century.

The top-tier was the last phase of excavation. The earlier caves were hollowed out at least one or two centuries earlier. This gives an excavation date of circa second century AD.

There are two more cave complexes – Khapra Khodia caves and Baba Pyara caves.

Khapra Khodia cave complex is the oldest cave complex. It is approximately two thousand years old. The builders of medieval and the later period used it as a quarry and so its upper floor has disappeared. Soon after its construction the resident monks noticed the cracks in the rocks that allowed the rain-water to seep-in. They feared that the caves might collapse so they abandoned it soon after its construction.

Baba Pyara caves were excavated in the second century or may be even earlier. It is in better state than the Khapra Khodia cave complex.

It has thirteen buddhist cells decorated with religion symbols of fish, swastika and ankush. However we skipped both these caves.

Adi-Kadi ki Vav – Stepwells of Uparkot Fort, Junagadh

Next in line were – Adi-Kadi Vav and Navghan Kuvo – the water-temples of medieval India.

Our guide boy was sharing the local wisdom – “अडी-कड़ी वाव ए नव्गहन कुवो, जे ना जोयो, ऐ जीवत मुओ” meaning that the one who has not seen the Adi-Kadi vav and Navghan Kuvo has lost a great chance in his life.

Adi-Kadi Vav, a man-made canyon carved out of virgin rocks, is around eighty-one meter long, 4.75 meter wide and around forty-one meter deep.

It is difficult to date it with scholars suggesting varying dates from second century to the fourteenth century. It is definitely among the earliest step-wells of the country.

Its simple structure consists of a basic stepped corridor, leading down several stories beginning at the entrance pavilion and ending at the water level of the well.

It has a well-shaft with a small window cut in the thin membrane above the wall to have an arrangement for fetching water-up by buckets.

There were no ornamental designs and the rock stratum along the side walls gave it stunning looks as if someone has written a cryptic book in braille.

I find it more plausible that this well was dug on this plateau to store rain water, but folklore goes that it was dug to find the ground water.

The Vav, cut out of natural rocks is believed to be constructed in the second half of the tenth century during the reign of Ra Navghan of Chudasama dynasty.

Story of the two young girls- Adi and Kadi

Initially, even after digging deep, there was no water. The royal priest informed the king that water would flow only when two virgin young girls will be sacrificed.

The two servant girls of the king, Adi and Kadi, offered themselves. With their sacrifice, the prophecy was fulfilled and the water erupted from the ground. Today colorful clothes and bangles are hung on a tree in the memory of the two sisters.

I would like to digress a little here. It is ok till it is folklore; else such shameful belief on black magic and human and animal sacrifice is appalling as well as reprehensible.

It would have been easy to force or brainwash two young girls to give up their life for someone’s stupid suggestion and belief.

आँखों से सपने लेकर, आँखों में दहशत भर दी|
हमने बच्चों के सपनों की बस इतनी कीमत रख दी|

I walked down those primitive 162 steps to have a look at the water in the Vav (step well). It was very dirty with all sort of modern garbage thrown into it.

I wonder can these old water temples be given a fresh lease of life, or will they die a slow death, that too, at a time when we have realized the importance of rain water harvesting and also the importance of reviving the old water-harvesting systems…

Navghan Kuvo, Stepwells of Uparkot Fort, Junagadh

Next, we went towards the Navghan Kuvo – a dramatically deep well cut into the natural soft rock. It is believed to be even older than Adi-Kadi Vav.

The simple square pillars and its peculiar construction method indicate its early date. Some scholars believe that it was constructed during Saka Kstrapa period (second to fourth century), some others believe it to be constructed in sixth or seventh century and some others contest that it was dug much later on by Ra Navghan-I and completed by his son Ra Khengar in eleventh century.

It is named after Rao Navghan-I, Chudasama ruler who ruled over Junagadh in 1060 AD.

There is a ten feet wide circular passage that surrounds the well shaft and winds down to a depth of around one hundred twenty feet. The stairs are lit and cooled by an array of small square openings.

As one descends down the illumination reduces. It is believed that the purpose of low illumination was to retain as much water as possible by minimizing the evaporation. We skipped going down as Tanmay was not looking well.

Deep wells always leave me scared and my heart beat increases whenever I look into them.

The Neglected water bodies – the stepwells

The visit to the stepwells of Uparkot fort revived a feeling of sadness. The feeling of sadness for the neglected water bodies – the step-wells, lakes, ponds. We did not construct them, we inherited them, but still we could not take care of them and eventually we suffer in their absence/un-usability.

Once upon a time these water bodies were treated like temples, nobody dare to spoil them, on festivals and on special occasions there was festive atmosphere, the master musicians played here, kings used them to get relief from scorching summer heats. They were life lines of tired travelers, residents, and in case of siege life-line of all within the fort.

What changed and when and who was responsible?

Was it Nehruvian model of development, which made us lazy in assuming that state has all the responsibility and citizens of villages/towns/cities have nothing to do to take care of these life-lines. Or were the British responsible for it, making the Indians feel that these water-bodies are unhygienic.

I live in Bengaluru now, a city that faces serious water crunch many a times. The argument is the city is on a hill so it is but natural to have water scarcity; what is left unsaid is the pathetic situation of its Lakes. There are still so many of them, though several of them were encroached by the land-mafia. If they were not polluted have we felt the water scarcity in Bengaluru!

I still remember all the debris that was there in Adi-Kadi Vav. Can these step-wells/lakes/ponds be kept clean with a collective responsibility?

The sad answer today is a big No. There is no initiative towards it.

Time to say bye to the Guide-boy

Next to that rock-cut cistern was a large granary that would have allowed the fort occupants to withstand extended siege.

It ended our trip of the fort of Uparkot. It was time for the guide-boy to leave. He was patient, allowed us to take our own sweet time and never pushed us to hurry.

Towards the end the boy told us that he was working as a guide to earn some extra money to pay his school fees. I doubted it and thought it to be a way to rouse emotions to get extra money. As soon I paid him, he politely thanked us and smilingly departed. As he did not pester me for any extra amount and happily walked away with initially agreed amount, I think he was genuine.

Simplicity and Honesty of the people of Junagadh

It was time for lunch. We walked to the Kalwa Chowk. There at Patel Restaurant we ordered two thalis and told the waiter that the kid would be sharing food with us.

After our meal, the owner told me the amount to pay. On a request for the breakup of the bill, the waiter explained it to the owner and added that as the kid has also shared the meal, so he has charged for an extra half thali.

It was enough to make the owner angry. He apologized and asked us to pay for the two. After the payment, as I moved ahead. I heard him scolding the waiter in Gujarati and warning him never to charge for a kid sharing a thali.

Commendable!

Kathiawar Cuisine

Kathiawari cuisine has usually more use of curd and besan (gram flour) to have cooling ingredients in the food as the region is quite dry.

The cuisine of the region is heavy on meat and spices because the region is dry where leafy vegetables are few and local spices are in abundance.

References

• The secrets of “India’s Royal Kitchens” by Pooja Singh and MahaLakshmi Prabhakaran published in MINT.

Caves of Udayagiri and Khandagiri – a guided tour with the Emperor Kharavela

Rani Gumpha, Ganesha Gumpha and other caves of Udayagiri cave complex in Odisha

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