stands the celebrated Iron Pillar, surrounded by cloisters formed of several rows of Hindu columns of infinite variety of design, and of most delicate execution." "

The presence of the infinitely various Hindu columns is explained by the fact that the mosque was constructed out of the materials of twenty-seven Hindu temples, of which some are known to have been Vaisnava and some Jaina. These temples were, with slight exceptions, utterly overthrown, so that one stone was not left upon another. The exceptions that the lower portion of the surrounding walls of the raised terrace on which the mosque stands is the original undisturbed platform of a Hindu temple on the exact site of which, in accordance with the usual practice, the mosque was erected; and that the tall pillars immediately behind the great arch are in their original position.

The Iron Pillar stands in this courtyard at a distance of ten or eleven yards outside the great arches of the mosque. Until Mr. Beglar, in 1871, excavated the base of the pillar, most exaggerated notions of its size were current. Sir Alexander Cunningham himself believed the total length to be not less than sixty feet, and the weight to exceed seventeen tons. Equally mistaken notions were current concerning the material of the pillar which, probably on account of the curious yellowish colour of the upper part of the shaft, was commonly believed to be a casting of brass, bronze, or other mixed metal. An accurate 1 Cunningham.

chemical analysis made at Cunningham's instance, left no room for doubt as to the material.

It is now established beyond the possibility of doubt that the material of the pillar is pure malleable iron of 7.66 specific gravity, and that the monument is a solid shaft of wrought iron welded together. Flaws in many parts disclose the fact that the welding is not absolutely perfect.

The total length of the pillar from the top of the capital to the bottom of the base is twenty-three feet eight inches. Twenty-two feet are above ground, and only one foot eight inches are below ground. The weight is estimated to exceed six tons. The lower diameter of the shaft is 16.4 inches, and the upper diameter is 12.05 inches, the diminution being 0.29 of an inch per foot. The capital, which is of the bell pattern, is three and a half feet high.

The base is a knob, or bulb, slightly irregular in shape, two feet, four inches in diameter, resting on a gridiron of iron bars, soldered with lead into the upper layer of dressed stone of the pavement. The bulb does not penetrate the lower layer of dressed stone. The column is, therefore, supported by the upper layer of the old Hindu floor, and the superficial layer of broken stone laid down by the Mussulmans. It is now further steadied by a small stone bench or platform, which has been recently built round the base on the surface of the floor.

The capital consists of seven parts, namely a reeded bell, like that of Buddha Gupta's monolith at Eran, a thin, plain disc, three discs with serrated edges, an

other thin, plain disc, and a square block.

Judging

from the analogy of the Eran monument, where a similar square block serves as pedestal to a statue, it is probable that the Iron Pillar was originally surmounted by an image of Vishnu, the god to whom it is dedicated. The block is now meaningless, and the absence of any trace of the image is easily explained by the fact that the monument stands in the precincts of a mosque. Reeded bell capitals, more or less similar, are found on other pillars, both of the Gupta period and of the much earlier age of Asoka.

The style of the pillar and the form of the characters of the inscription, considered together, permit no doubt that the monument was erected in the Gupta period. Prinsep was of opinion that it should be dated in the Third or Fourth Century A. D. Fergusson ascribed it to one of the Gupta emperors. Bhau Daji was inclined to date it a little later. Dr. Fleet points out that the characters of the inscription closely resemble those of the panegyric on Samudra Gupta on the Allahabad Pillar. The well-marked top lines of the letters on the Iron Pillar, which were once supposed to mark a later date, are also found in Kumara Gupta's Bilsad inscription.

The bottom line of the inscription, which covers a space about two feet nine and a half inches broad by ten and a half inches high, is at a height of about seven feet two inches above the stone platform in which the pillar is now fixed. The deeply-cut characters are in excellent preservation, and, with one exception, the engraving is