Page:Report for the Year 1871-72- Delhi and Agra.djvu/26



entering on the report, it is necessary to premise that I have no share in the reading or interpretation of any inscriptions. On this head 1 hare confined myself to copying such as had not been copied before, or of which  fresh copies appeared desirable. I hare availed myself of such published and unpublished information as I was aware of and had access to, but there is much that I have not been  able to obtain access to, and probably more that I am not aware of,

I begin with the two pillars of Asoka, one in Firuz Shah's Kotela, just outside the Delhi gate of Delhi Shahjahanabad; the other near Hindu Rao's house, and close to the monument lately erected in commemoration of the siege and capture of Delhi during the mutiny of 1867.

Of the former, General Cunningham has already treated exhaustively, and I refer to his writings; the pillar is placed on a massive building of the style peculiar to Firuz Shah's period, viz., of rubble stone, with the domes of rubble stone irregularly set in mortar of admirable quality, and arches with ribs. The top of the building is of the form of a pyramid, of very broad base, and very small altitude, eminently fitted for the speedy carrying off of rain water, yet flat enough to make it a pleasant terrace for the enjoyment of the river breezes and views in the cool of the evening.

The slope, however, makes me doubt if another storey ever existed over it, whether of walls or colonnades : there are, indeed, the stumps of two pillars near the edge of the roof on the north side, and these appear deeply imbedded, so that it would be utterly impossible to remove them without leaving indelible marks of their existence; but as no marks