Sejport of tie Archaeological Survey. xxix 



Pillar.' This gilt pinnacle was still in its place in A. D. 1611, when 

 William Pinch entered Delhi, as he describes the Stone Pillar of 

 Simsa, which, after passing through three several stories, rises 24 

 feet above them, all having on the top a globe surmounted ly a 

 crescent" The 24 feet of this account are probably the same as the 

 24 gaz of the other, the gaz being only a fraction over 16 inches. 



54. The great inscription of Asoka, which is engraved on this 

 pillar, attracted the notice and stimulated the curiosity of Piruz Shah, 

 who assembled a number of learned Brahmans to decypher it, but 

 without success. " Some, however, interpreted the writing to signify 

 that no one would ever succeed in removing the pillar from the spot 

 on which it originally stood, until a king should be born, by name 

 Piruz Shah." This sort of unblushing mendacity is still but too 

 common in India. Almost everywhere I have found Brahmans ready 

 to tell me the subject of long inscriptions, of which they could not 

 possibly read a single letter. Equally untrue, although not so shame- 

 less, are the accounts of this inscription given by Tom Coryat. In a 

 letter to L. Whittaker,* he says " I have been in a city of this 

 country called Delee, where Alexander the Great joined battle with 

 Porus, King of India, and defeated him, and where, in memory of his 

 victory, he caused to be erected a brazen pillar, which remains there 

 to this day." The same story, with additions, was repeated to the 

 unsuspecting Chaplain Edward Terry,f who says, "I was told by 

 Tom Coryat (who took special note of this place) that he being in 

 the city of Delee, observed a very great pillar of marble, with a 

 Greek inscription, upon it, which time hath almost quite worn out, 

 erected (as he supposed) there and then by Great Alexander to 

 preserve the memory of that famous victory." This erroneous opinion 

 of Coryat was adopted by most of the early English travellers, as 

 noticed by Purchas^ who states that these inscriptions are in Greeh 

 and Hebrew, and that some affirm the pillar was erected by Alexander 

 the Great. Coryat's mistake about the Greek most probably arose 

 from an actual inspection of the inscription, in which he would na- 

 turally have recognized the 0, ^ (, -J~, /\, |, □, £, and > as Greek 

 letters. The similarity struck James Prinsep also. A notable ex- 



* Kerr's Yoyages and Travels, IX— 423. 



f Journal, p. 81. 



% Kerr, VIII— 293, note 6, 



