1865.] Report of the Archaeological Survey, 211 



demolished. On comparing therefore this cloistered Masjid with 

 those of Jonpur, which are acknowledged re- arrangements of Hindu 

 materials, we see at once that the pillars are all Hindu, and that the 

 domes formed of courses of overlapping stones, and decorated with 

 Hindu symbols, are certainly not Muhammadan. When I first visited 

 Kanoj in January, 1838, the arrangement of the pillars was somewhat 

 different from what I found it in November, 1862. The cloisters which 

 originally extended all round the square, are now confined to the 

 Masjid itself, that is, to the west side only. This change is said to 

 have been made by a Muhammadan Tahsildar shortly before 1857. 

 The same individual is also accused of having destroyed all the remains 

 of figures that had been built into the walls of the Jama and Makh- 

 dum Jahdniya Masjids. It is certain that there are none visible now, 

 although in January 1838, as recorded in my Journal, I saw " several 

 Hindu figures placed sideways and upside down" in the walls of the 

 Jama Masjid and three broken figures lying outside the doorway of 

 the Masjid of Makhdum Jahdniya. The inscription over the doorway 

 of the last, which I saw in its place in 1838, is said to have been 

 removed at the same time for the purpose of cutting off a Hindu figure 

 on the back of it. I recoverd this inscription by sending to the present 

 Tahsildar for it. 



262. The Jama Masjid, as it stands now, is a pillared room, 108 

 feet in length by 26 feet in width, supported on four rows of columns. 

 The roof is flat, excepting the centre and ends, which are covered with 

 domes formed by circles of stones gradually lessening until they meet. 

 In front of the Masjid there is a courtyard 95 feet in width, the whole 

 being surrounded by a stone wall 6 feet in thickness. The exterior 

 dimensions are 133 feet from west to east, by 120J feet, In 1838 there 

 were still standing on the three sides of the courtyard portions of the 

 original cloisters formed of two rows of pillars. The Masjid itself was 

 then confined to the five openings in the middle of the west side, the 

 seven openings on each flank of it being formed of only two rows of 

 pillars the same as on the other three sides. The Masjid now consists 

 of a single room supported on 60 pillars without any cloisters ; but 

 originally the Masjid itself was supported on 20 pillars with cloisters 

 on each flank, and also on the other three sides of the courtyard. The 

 whole number of pillars was then 128. To make up this number we 



27 



