222 Report of the Archaeological Survey . [No. 4 



which the to, b, &c, retain the old form." Of one of these names 

 he remarks " Now it would have heen exceedingly difficult, if not 

 impossible, to have cut the name No. 10 up and down at right angles 

 to the other writing, while the pillar was erect, to say nothing of the 

 place being out of reach, unless a scaffold were erected on purpose, 

 which would hardly be the case, since the object of an ambitious visitor 

 would be defeated by placing his name out of sight and in an unread- 

 able position." The pillar " was erected as Samudra Gupta's arm, 

 and there it probably remained until overthrown again by the idol- 

 breaking zeal of the Musalmans ; for we find no writings on it of the 

 Pdla, or Samath type (*. e., of the tenth century), but a quantity 

 appears with plain legible dates from the Samvat year 1420, or A. D. 

 1363, down to 1660 odd, and it is remarkable that these occupy 

 one side of the shaft, or that which was uppermost when the pillar 

 was in a prostrate position. A few detached and ill executed Nagari 

 names with Samvat dates of 1800 odd, show that even since it was 

 laid on the ground again by General Garstin, the passion for recording 

 visits of piety or curiosity has been at work." In this last passage 

 James Prinsep has made a mistake in the name of the Vandal Engineer 

 who overthrew the stone pillar, because it stood in the way of his new 

 line of rampart near the gateway. It was General Kyd, and not 

 General Garstin, who was employed to strengthen the Fort of Allaha- 

 bad, and his name is still preserved in the suburb of Kydganj, on the 

 Jumna, immediately below the city. 



279. The pillar was again set up in 1838 by Captain Edward 

 Smith, of the Engineers, to whom the design of the present capital is 

 entirely due. At first it was intended to have placed a fancy flower as 

 an appropriate finish to the pillar, but as the people had a tradition 

 that the column was originally surmounted by the figure of a lion, it 

 was suggested by a Committee of the Asiatic Society that the design 

 of the new capital should be made as nearly as possible the same as the 

 original, of which the Bakra and Navandgarh or (Mathiya) pillars, 

 were cited as examples. The lion statues which crown the bell capitals 

 of these two pillars I have seen and admired, and I can affirm that 

 they are the figures of veritable lions. Both of them are represented 

 half couchant, with the head raised and the mouth open. The bell 

 capital swells out boldly towards the top to receive a massive abacus, 

 which forms the plinth of the statue, In these examples the broad 



