Patan - Sundhara Chowk

The show-piece of Sundhara Chowk is the Tusa Hiti, a sunken bath built for the Malla kings. Water flows from gilded makaras into the octagonal tank, so shaped in honor of the eight nagas, deities of fertility and rain. Immediately above the makaras, Vishnu and Lakshmi are borne aloft on Garuda's back. A miniature version of the Krishna Mandir on Durbar Square graces the head of the pool.

The sunken bath is encircled by a double, sculpted frieze, intricately carved with spreading foliage. Filling the arbor-like recesses are figures of Tantric deities, including the Ashta Matrikas, the eight Bhairavas and the eight nagas. The pantheon extends onto the paving of the court. Two nagas, their heads raised towards bathers leaving the pool, form a nagh bandh - a garland of snakes warding off evil spirits - around the rim.