XXX 



Report of the 'Arcliceological Survey. 



ception to the other English travellers is William Finch, who simply 

 states that " it has inscriptions." 



55. The mistakes that have been made about this column are, 

 however, not confined to its inscriptions, as we have seen above, where 

 Coryat calls it a " Brazen Pillar." Strange to say, a similar mistake 

 has been made by the generally accurate Bishop Heber, who calls it 

 " a high black pillar of cast-metal ;" and again, in describing the Iron 

 Pillar, he calls it a Metal Pillar like that in Firuz Shah's Castle*. 

 Again Colonel Tod has identified this pillar with the Nigambod 

 column alluded to by the bard Chand "as telling the fame of the 

 Chohan." It is quite possible that some other pillar may once have 

 stood at Nigambod ; but as the golden column of Firuz really does 

 "tell the fame of the Chohan," and as its inscriptions were recorded 

 only thirty years prior to Chanel's death, it seems most probable that 

 his allusion must be to this particular pillar. The name of Nigambod 

 may perhaps be a corruption of the real name of the place where the 

 column then stood, or an ignorant interpolation in the text of a date 

 later than Firuz Shah. 



56. The "Golden Pillar" is a single shaft of pale pinkish sand- 

 stone, 42 feet 7 inches in length, of which the upper portion, 35 feet 

 in length, has received a very high polish, while the remainder is left 

 quite rough. Its upper diameter is 25*3 inches, and its lower diameter 

 38'8 inches, the diminution being *39 inch per foot. Its weight is 

 rather more than 27 tons. In its dimensions it is more like the 

 Allahabad Pillar than any other, but it tapers much more rapidly 

 towards the top, and is therefore less graceful in its outline. 



57. There are two principal inscriptions on Firuz Shah's pillar, 

 besides several minor records of pilgrims and travellers from the first 

 centuries of the Christian era down to the present time. The oldest 

 inscriptions for which the pillar was originally erected, comprise the 

 well known edicts of Asoka, which were promulgated in the middle of 

 the third century B. C. in the ancient Pali, or spoken language of 

 the day. The alphabetical characters, which are of the oldest form 

 that has yet been found in India, are most clearly and beautifully cut, 

 and there are only a few letters of the whole record lost by the peeling 

 off of the surface of the stone. The inscription ends with a short 



* Journal II., pp. 291—307. 



