Page:The Seven Cities of Delhi.djvu/103

 concern themselves only with religious matters, such as the resolutions of Buddhist councils, or grants of land to temples. The earliest mention of Delhi, as a city of that name, occurs in the songs of Hindu bards; there is a story, in one of these lays, of the site having been abandoned for 792 years before it was repeopled. We know, from an inscription on the Iron Pillar, that "Ang Pal built Delhi in a.d. 1052," but the best authorities give to the pillar itself an antiquity which extends to the third or fourth century of the Christian era : this conclusion is obtained by the form of the writing of the earliest inscription on the pillar. A century, more or less, does not matter much, and the difference of these two figures, 1052 and (say) 300, is not so very far out from 792, all things considered, so the Hindu bard may have sung correctly. The presence of the Iron Pillar argues that the city really had been previously occupied, for the pillar is so heavy that it cannot be far from the place where it was first set up. It is possible, therefore, that the word translated as "built" should be rendered "rebuilt." But when we turn to ancient historians for light on this point, we find them silent.

The Greek historians, who took their accounts from those who accompanied Alexander the