1835.] Farther particulars of the Allahabad Column. 127 



peculiar study of the ornaments of Hindu and Muhammedan buildings 

 in such parts of India as he has visited, will, we may hope, hereafter 

 contribute to our better acquaintance with the detail of oriental 

 architecture of various epochs. 



" On perusing No. 27 of the Asiatic Society's Journal, for March, 1834, I ob- 

 served a long treatise on the Allahabad column, which has been lying partly buried 

 since 1804, when wantonly taken down by that enemy to Hindustani architec- 

 ture, Colonel Kyd, at which time the capital of it (of which I am about to treat) 

 was destroyed. 



" I obtained my information from a very old inhabitant, a Musalman classie, 

 who had seen the obelisk erect, opposite the inner gate-way of the Jumna Dur- 

 waza ; he informed me, that a figure of a lion was on the capital before it was 

 destroyed. 



" I am sorry to say, that from absorption of damp and saltpetre, the outer crust 

 is fast caking off, carrying the inscriptions with it ; though, at the fiat of the 

 commandant of the garrison, a working party of a couple of hundred sipahis could 

 be sent and the column placed on stone trucks, or on logs of wood cut for the pur- 

 pose, and thereby be saved from further destruction. 



" My attention was first drawn towards this monument of antiquity by the un- 

 common ornament on the periphery of the mutilated capital, of which I enclose a 

 rough though correct sketch, (fig.4, Plate IX.)andupon examination, I found that 

 Lt. Burt's bull was once a figure ofalioncouchant, the claws in each paw being very 

 plain ; and the square shape in which the chest is cut between the forelegs, led me 

 to a supposition that there had been a like figure to the colossal representation of 

 the lion and elephant on the bridge at Jaunpur, and which was found in the ruins 

 of the fort there, during the repairs of the bridge by Capt. McPherson, who 

 placed it on a pedestal— (if acceptable I will at a future period send a drawing and 

 description of it*.) I am the more convinced of the correctness of my conclusion, 

 since the perusal of October's number of A. S. Journal, in which a drawing and 

 description of the Mattiah Lath is given, on which precisely the same figure occurs, 

 the elephant excepted. 



" The ornaments on the periphery of the block will be found to resemble those 

 common in the cimarecta of Grecian cornices ; the astragal or beading of it is also 

 of common occurrence in Grecian and Roman architecture. 



" On comparing Lieut. Burt's copy of the character No. 1, I observed several 

 errors in the shape of the letters, and in their actual number ; this however has be- 

 come of no moment since your discovery, that the three inscriptions of the Delhi, 

 Pryag, and Mattiah pillars are each other's facsimiles. 



" However, there is one omission, I consider, of great importance; — that of the 

 interlineation of nearly the whole character No. 1, with one more modern, like un- 

 to No. 2, and which may probably be a translation into Sanscrit of the former ; 

 it is cut or rather dotted in a very rough manner, and in some places the letters join 

 into those of No. 1, to which I attribute the errors in the copy of that character. 



" 1 shall here conclude by remarking, that the number of lines effaced by Jehan- 

 gir's pedigree are seven, by correct measurement ; whereas three are the number 

 mentioned : this may probably be a misprint." 



' We shall esteem this a favor. There was however no elephant on the Al- 

 lahabad column. — Ed. 



