Sun Temple, Modhera and Learning the Art of Unplanned Travel

The Capricorn in me always overshadows the traveler in me, which means that my trips are usually meticulously planned ones. Though I love it when a destination surprises me, but then I also always like my hotels pre-booked and flights/trains/buses sorted. As much as I like to go with the flow, a basic outline of the trip is always floating above my head like a thinking bubble, or maybe more like a halo to the drama queen I might turn out to be.

Last month (all thanks to a lot of factors I had no control over) I ventured into the unknown world of travelling without a plan, without a hotel to check in to after landing at Ahmedabad Airport. All the years of travel had taught me to not freak out, and I tried my best to handle things on the go, connecting the dots and creating stories out of them. Three days of miscalculations and bad judgement later, I realized it was also unadulterated fun, if I let go of the planner once in a while. Gujarat was good to me, and I had a great time exploring it’s little known wonders as well as known spectacles.

There was no plan, but a Gujarat Tourism counter at Ahmedabad Airport pushed me towards a lesser known, small town called Patan, around 125 km from Ahemadabad which is famous for Patola Sarees that cost a bomb. It wasn’t the sarees that fascinated me at first, but the UNESCO World Heritage site called Rani Ki Vav (Queen’s Step-well) is what I was eyeing along with a stop over at Sun Temple, Modhera. A delicious roadside Gujarati breakfast and a couple of hours later, we entered the sleepy town of Modhera, that promised us a bright sunny day, a welcome change from the Delhi winters I have grown to not like at all.

Dedicated to the Sun God, situated on the banks of river Pushpavati, this surely is one of the most beautiful and elaborate ancient temples I have ever seen. Sun Temple Modhera blew my mind away with the intricately carved Ramayana, Mahabharata, Sagar Manthan stories all over. The pillars of the temple teach everything from Vastu to Mathematics to, from Dance/Music to Science and even give many a lessons in Geography and Astrology.

With an intricately carved step-well, a beautiful assembly hall and a well crafted shrine hall, the Sun Temple is an architectural marvel built by King Bhima, the first of the Chaulukya dynasty While his capital was Patan, there’s an interesting story behind why the temple was built a few kilometers away, at Modhera.

It is believed that the temple used to host a gold statue of the Sun God, which was placed at the exact point where the first sun rays fall during the days equinox (The time or date, twice each year at which the sun crosses the celestial equator, when day and night are of equal length. Unfortunately, the statue is not there anymore, probably lost during many invasions that the country had to suffer. But, even with a vacant sanctum sanatorium, the I found the Sun Temple to be the most pristine, Still radiating a lot of knowledge and positive energy. Probably, our ancestors were a wiser, more knowledgeable lot who knew how to balance everything in life.

As I was wondering about energy that was resonating here and how it made me feel, I spotted this turtle happily swimming in waters of the beautiful step-well. Turtles are good luck signs in many a cultures, and I really was happy get one just at the beginning of this highly unplanned trip. Also, it helped that I really do believe in the phrase that well begun is half done.

Sun Temple Modhera was s an absolute delight for an architecture lover like me and I spent a couple of hours admiring the craftsmanship on display. It is an ASI protected monument, and might soon get the coveted World Heritage status, that is more than well deserved. From Modhera, I was headed to Patan and it was time for an unpredictable quest for stories. How Patan treated me is fodder for another post though.