Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/251

 CHAP. III. DELHI. 209 As the inscription informs us the pillar was dedicated to Vishnu, there is little doubt that it originally supported a figure of Garuda on the summit, which the Muhammadans of course removed ; but the real object of its erection was as a dhwaja or standard of the god Vishnu and to record the " defeat of the Vahlikas, 1 across the seven mouths of the Sindhu," or Indus. It is, to say the least of it, a curious coincidence, that eight centuries afterwards men from that same Baktrian country should have erected a Jaya Stambha ten times as tall as this one, in the same courtyard,to celebrate their victory over the descendants of those Hindus who so long before had expelled their ancestors from the country. Immediately behind the north-west corner of the mosque stands the tomb of Altamsh, the founder. Though small being a room 29 ft. 6 in. square inside, with walls J ft. thick and doors on the four sides it is one of the richest examples of Hindu art applied to Muhammadan pur- poses that Old Delhi affords, and is ex- tremely beautiful, though the builders still display a certain degree of inaptness in fitting the details to their new purposes. The effect at present is injured by the want of a roof, which has long since disappeared. In addition to the beauty of its details it is interesting as being the oldest tomb known to exist in India. He died A.D. 1 235.2 374- Interior of a Tomb at Old Delhi, a Sketch by the Author.) (From 1 Can these Vahlikas be the Indo- Skythians by overthrowing whom the Guptas must have risen to power ? In Sanskrit literature, by Vahlikas the people of Baktria or Balkh are usually VOL. II. understood. 2 Carr Stephen's ' Archaeology of Delhi,' pp. 74-75 ; Fanshawe's * Delhi Past and Present,' pp. 269, 270. O