Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/250

 208 INDIAN SARACENIC ARCHITECTURE. BOOK VII. One of the most interesting objects connected with this mosque is the iron pillar which stands in its courtyard (Woodcut No. 373). It stands 22 ft. above the ground, and as the depth under the pavement is now ascertained to be only 20 in., the total height is 23 ft. 8 in. 1 Its diameter at the base is 16.4 in., and at the capital 12.05 ' m - The capital is 3^ ft. high, and is sharply and clearly wrought into the Persian form that makes it look as if it belonged to an earlier period than it does ; and it has the amalaka moulding, which is indicative of considerable antiquity. It has not, however, been yet correctly ascertained what its age really is. There is an inscription upon it, but without a date. From the form of its alphabet, Prinsep ascribed it to the 3rd or 4th century ; 2 Bhau Daji, on the same evidence, to the end of the 5th or beginning of the 6th century. 3 My own conviction is that it belongs to one of the Chandra Rajas of the Gupta dynasty, either consequently about A.D. 370 or A.D. 415. Taking A.D. 400 as a mean date and it certainly is not far from the truth it opens our eyes to an unsuspected state of affairs to find the Hindus at that age capable of forging a bar of iron larger than any that have been forged even in Europe up to a very late date, and not frequently even now. As we find them, however, some centuries afterwards, using bars as long as this lat in roofing the porch of the temple at Kanarak (ante, p. 107), we must now believe that they were much more familiar with the use of this metal than they afterwards became. It is almost equally startling to find that, after an exposure to wind and rain for fourteen centuries, it is unrusted, and the capital and inscription are as clear and as sharp now as when put up fifteen centuries ago. 4 1 It is a curious illustration how diffi- cult it sometimes is to obtain correct information in India, that when Gen. Cunningham published his ' Reports' in 1871, he stated, apparently on the authority of Mr Cooper, Deputy Com- missioner, that an excavation had been carried down to a depth of 26ft., but without reaching the bottom. "The man in charge, however," ttmoin oculaire "assured him that the actual depth reached was 35 ft." Vol. i. p. 169. He consequently estimated the whole length at 60 ft., but fortunately ordered a new excavation, determined to reach the bottom cotite qui cofite and found it at 20 inches below the surface. Vol. iv. p. 28, plate 5. At a distance of a few inches below the surface it expands in a bulbous form to a diameter of 2 ft. 4 in., and rests on a gridiron of iron bars, which are fastened with lead into the stone pavement. 2 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. vii. p. 629. 3 'Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. x. p. 63. Dr Fleet in ' Inscriptions of the Early Guptas, 'pp. I39f. gives a revised version. It bears a posthumous inscription in eulogy of the conquests of a king Chandra as to whose date or dynasty nothing is stated. 4 There is no mistake about the Meharauli pillar being of pure iron. Gen. Cunningham had a bit of it ana- lysed in India by Dr. Murray, and another portion was analysed in the School of Mines here by Dr. Percy. Both found it pure malleable iron with- out any alloy.