The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will issue Rs 100 denomination banknotes in the Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series, bearing the signature of the bank's governor, Dr Urjit R. Patel.
The new denomination has a motif of Rani Ki Vav (The Queen's Stepwell) on the reverse, depicting the country's cultural heritage.
Rani Ki Vav is a culturally and historically important site with a history of about 1000 years.
Here are some interesting facts about the site:
- The stepwell was initially built as a memorial to King Bhimdev of Chalunkya dynasty by his widow Queen Udyamati, in 11th century A.D
- The Queen’s Stepwell is located in Patan, Gujarat on the banks of river Sabarmati.
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- Basically designed as an inverted temple, the structure has seven levels of stairs. The fourth level, which hold the water tank, is the deepest and leads into a rectangular tank 9.5 m by 9.4 m, at a depth of 23 m.
- The site is administered by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and is open to visitors from 8 a.m to 6 p.m.
- The structure was flooded by the Sabarmati River and remained silted till the late 1980s, when the ASI excavated it.
- Rani-ki-Vav was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 2014.
- It no longer function as a water well as a result of geo-tectonic changes in 13th century. It was however the silting of the flood caused during this historic event , which allowed for the exceptional preservation of Rani-ki-Vav for over seven centuries.
