241! Dr. Waddell— ' Manik-tham ' monolith in the Pura.niya district. [Dec. 



The pillar is situated outside the N. W. corner of the old fort of 

 Sikligai^h, ' the chain fortress ', on the western border of the district. 

 It is of thick, inelegant shape, and has the same general proportions and 

 appearance as the Ghazipur edict pillar, now in the grounds of the 

 Benares College. The stone is a light reddish granite of such fine tex- 

 ture as to appear almost like sandstone. It can scarcely be called a 

 ' rude ' cylinder, as it is perfectly cylindrical and its sui-face is smooth 

 and almost polished. It is no longer erect, but is inclined at an angle 

 of about G5° — this inclination, I am informed, was gi^en it about 3 years 

 ago by the then Collector of the district who dug around the pillar and 

 then tilted it over in this way to make sure his excavation had 

 reached the base. 



As the appearance of the monolith was sug'gestive of its being 

 probably an edict pillar, and its greater portion was buried under ground, 



I had it excavated. This operation showed that the pillar had originally 

 been implanted for over half its length in a foundation of irregular 

 layers of bricks and mortar. The appearance of the column on excava- 

 tion is well seen in the annexed sketch.* The pillar retained its smooth 

 and almost polished surface throughout its extent, except in a few por- 

 tions where this surface has scaled off, and where about its middle third 

 the west face of the pillar had been vei'y roughly chipped away to form 

 an irregular oblong depression about 6 feet in length and about 2| feet 

 in breadth. The most careful search all over the pillar, however, failed 

 to find any trace of an inscription. The basal extremity of the pillar 

 was sharply truncated across and rested in the sand, and here imme- 

 diately under the pillar was found the gold coin of Indo-Scythic cha- 

 racter which accompanies this note. 



The upper extremity of the pillar is perforated by a hole (12 inches 

 deep, and in diameter b^ inches at the top and 3|" at the bottom) which 

 evidently formed the socket for the stem or bolt of a drowning orna- 

 ment ; and in forcibly wrenching out this latter the top of the shaft has 

 been extensively fractured, (vide sketch). Local tradition alleges that 

 the shaft was formerly surmounted by the figure of a lion, but that this 

 was removed many hundreds of years ago, no one knows where. 



The dimensions of the pillar are as follow : — total length is 19 ft. 



II inches (of which 7^ feet are above ground) ; circumference at 3 feet 

 from summit, is 112| inches. 



Regarding the purpose of this pillar there must still remain much 

 doubt. The villagers in the neighbourhood call it ^ Manik tham ' or 

 ' the precious pillar ' of Hindu fable, and worship it. Dr. Buchanan 



* Plate IV. 



