XCH Archeological Survey Report. 
cannot, in my opinion, be of later date than the invasion of Alexander 
the Great. 
220. The Bhitari pillar is a single block of reddish sandstone, 
apparently from one of the Chunar quarries. The shaft of the pillar 
is circular, with a diameter of 2 feet 44 inches and a height of 15 
feet 5 inches. The base is square, but its height is rather uncertain, 
The upper portion, on which the inscription is cut, has been smoothed, 
but the lower portion, as far as my excavation went, still bears the 
marks of the chisel, although not every deep. My excavation was 
carried down to the level of the adjoining fields, a depth of 6 feet 9 
inches below the top of the base, without finding any trace of a 
pedestal ; and as itis most probable that the inscription was placed 
on a level with the eye, I would fix the height of the original base 
at about 6 feet, thus giving it an elevation of only 9 inches above the 
level of the country. The capital is 3 feet 2 inches in height, bell- 
shaped and reeded like the capitals of the Asoka pillars. A large 
portion of the capital is broken off on the western side, thus exposing 
a deep narrow socket, which could only have helda metalspike. The 
upper portion of the shaft also is split to a depth of about 2 feet. 
The people say that the pillar was struck by lightning many years 
ago. It certainly was in the same state when I first saw it in 
ganuary 1836, and I know of only one reason to make me doubt the 
accuracy of the people’s statement, namely, that both the iron pillar at 
Delhi and the stone pillar at Navandgarh Lauriya have been wantonly 
injured by cannon shot. If the capital of the Bhitari pillar had been ~ 
surmounted by a statue of any kind, as it most probably was when 
the Muhammedans first settled there, I think that the breaking of 
the capital may be attributed to their destructive bigotry with quite 
as much probability as to lightning. I found a portion of the broken 
capital in my excavation of the foot of the pillar. 
221. The inscription, which is cut on the eastern side of the base, 
consists of 19 lines of well shaped characters of the early Gupta 
period. Unfortunately this face is much weather-worn, and the stone 
has also peeled off in several places, so that the inscription is now 
in even a worse condition than when I first saw it in January 1836. 
The copy which I then made by eye I compared letter by letter with 
the original inscription on the spot, and although I found several 
errors in different parts of the inscription, yet the only serious one is 
