In the famous golden triangle travel corridor of Delhi-Agra- Jaipur a sizeable section of travellers often miss an extraordinary heritage site that comes nearly 95 km before of Jaipur from Agra. However one who keeps interest in both history, heritage and archaeology will always wish to witness two jaw-falling pieces of engineering marvel brilliantly coexisting with a magical expression of stone craft. Amazing enough to say that this extraordinary blending of art and science again has history to provide water management in a region not blessed with regular rainfall. The thousand years old majestic and gigantic stone stepwell known as Chand Baori situated at Abhaneri village of Rajasthan’s Dausa district is one of the most underrated heritage site of India. This lesser known archeological gem of Rajasthan is one of the biggest and most extraordinarily designed stepwell of India that still glows bright to reflect India’s pristine past. Interestingly the name Abhaneri is derived from the word Abha nagari the city of brightness from 8th century.

 

Thanks to the lack of any written record and non-availability of any dedicatory stone tablet the history of Chand Raja ki Baoli or the well of King Chand is not well scripted. However from the style of its architecture and based on the legend it is believed that the first part of the stepwell was designed and executed in 8th to 9th century by one Chandra Raja a Nukumbha Rajput of Chahamana dynasty who ruled the region for nearly 400 years. The stepwell was built as a reservoir to collect rainwater and a rectangular courtyard around it was developed as a multipurpose community meeting place. Built on a rectangular courtyard properly fenced with arched arcade from all three sides, the stepwell followsadesign of upside down pyramid where 3500 cascading steps in 13 well designed landing from three sides of the wall have gone down from surface to 19.5 mt deep in a descending intricate geometric order. It means more and more one gets inside of the stepwell to touch the water he finds the structure becoming narrower but wide and open enough to see the sky and to get the sun light.

 

The front side of the stepwell has multi storied chambers. Jharokha, two balconies, decorated pillars and carnies can also be seen. In that multi layers structure separate pavilions and pleasure rooms are built for royals who as assumed used to enjoy a cooler atmosphere. One Ganesh statue and one statue of Durga in the form of Mahisashura Mardini killing the demon king with a trident are most stunning. There is also a statue of Vishnu. The protecting balcony and the chambers are not open for common people but its grand edifices can be seen from the top. The real splendidness of Abhaneri’s stepwell is the extraordinary visual delight of its 3500 double flight steps that decorate three side walls of the structure. The precise geometrical pattern in which the provision of accessing ground water was unbelievingly designed more than thousand years ago still creates a magical maze.

 

The innovative architectural idea applied to shape up so many symmetric triangular steps leading to the water is just flabbergasting. Nowhere before such level of science and arts were mixed for the sake of water management. The extraordinarily photogenic structure is primarily built in volcanic rock and sand stone. Other building material of that age were lime, mud, wood etc. The arched arcade was added much later as its design seems influenced by Islamic architecture. Once it was used as a resting place for pilgrims and now it houses plethora of broken temple artifacts mostly collected from a ravaged temple named Harshit Mata mandir stands just next to the stepwell. Harshit Mata temple a huge temple dedicated to Devi Durga was also built by Raja Chandra in 9th century but after the stepwell was constructed. It is believed that the original temple which was built in Mahameru style of North Indian school of temple architecture was a grand piece of work. It had a Pancharathra sanctum erected on a raised stone platform with a huge shikhara or pinnacle supported by several pillars all embellished with rich stone carving of various Hindu motifs, human and animal figure and sacred symbols.

 

The temple had a sandhara garbha griha, pillared mandap and the pinnacle was crowned by a domical ceiling. The upper terrace of the high plinth was richly decorated with curved structure placed in the niches. It is believed that Sultan Mahmud of Gaznavid empire of Aganisthan on his way to loot Somnath temple of Gujarat also plundered the temple by breaking its basic structure and leaving the high stone plinth almost intact. The enriched walls, pillars and amaloka of temple all were reduced to rubble by Islamic invaders, and today the broken parts of the temple are scattered all over the temple complex making it as one of the best open air archeological museum of India. Many beautiful temple parts which were all reduced to rubble in that plundering are now kept inside of the arches of stepwell complex and the collection looks so rich that it may take a day to see the entire collection. Apart from broken pillars heavily designed with floral motifs and statues there are broken idol of Mahishashurmardini, Ganesh, Vishnu, Yaksha, Yakshi, Shiva, Parashurama, Kalki avatar, Parvati,Laxmi, and many more Brahamanical deities. Many of the broken statues were shifted to museums of Jaipur, Udaipur etc.

 

The present dome like pinnacle was added much later and the Islamic influence in that dome is very clear. The Durga deity enshrined the temple was also stolen. It was replaced by a Laxmi idol who is also known as Harshit Mata the mother of rejoice. Both Chand baori the stepwell and ruined temple of Harshit Mata at this nondescriptive small semi urban locality of eastern Rajasthan are important marks of our pristine past. These two colossal heritage structures are peerless example of India’s unmatched supremacy in her preIslamic era when this country was known for her brilliance in both art and science. ■