Hejport of the Arcliceological Survey. 



xxxvn 



" Ne'er will thy kingdom be besped, 

 " The spike hath pierced Vasuki's head." 

 Vyas had no sooner departed, than the incredulous Eaja boldly 

 declared his disbelief in the sage's announcement, when immediately 

 " JBilan De Jchunti ukhdrli delchi, 

 " Tab loTiu se chuchdti nikali" 

 " He saw the spike thrown on the ground, 

 " Blood-dropping from the serpent's wound." 

 The sage was recalled by the horrified king, who was directed to drive 

 the stake into the ground a second time. Again he struck, but the 

 spike penetrated only nineteen fingers, and remained loose in the 

 ground. Once more then the sage addressed the Kaja prophetically, 

 " Like the spike (Jcilli) which you have driven, your dynasty will be 

 unstable (dilli), and after ' nineteen' generations it will be supplanted 

 by the Chohans, and they by the Turkans." Bilan De then became 

 King of Dilli, and with his descendants held the throne for nineteen 

 generations, according to the number of finger's lengths which the spike 

 had been driven into the ground. 



70. What was the origin of this tradition, and at what time it first 

 obtained currency may never perhaps be known ; but I think we are 

 justified in hazarding a guess that the long reign of the Tomar dynasty 

 must first have led to an opinion of its durability, which would then 

 have been naturally compared with the evident stability with which 

 the Iron Pillar was fixed in the ground. We have an exactly parallel 

 case in the well known saying about Rome and the Coliseum — 

 " Quamdiu stabit Cotyseus, stabit et JBoma; qiiando cadet Colyseus, 

 cadet Roma" which the verse of Byron has rendered famous : — 

 " While stands the Coliseum, Rome shall stand, 

 When falls the Coliseum, Rome shall fall." 

 This indeed is the oldest form of the Indian tradition that I have been 

 &ble to trace. When the Muhammadan conqueror first took possession 

 of Delhi, he was informed that the inscription on the Iron Pillar 

 declared that the Hindu rule would last as long as the Pillar remained 

 standing ; on hearing which, to show his contempt of the prophecy, 

 the proud victor allowed the pillar to stand. This same story must 

 have been told to Bishop Heber, but he has jumbled it up with his 

 account of Firuz Shah's Pillar.* That the story which he heard must 

 * Journal II, 291. 



