xl 



Hejport of the ArcTiceological Survey, 



are of many various sizes, the required height is obtained by the 

 insertion of other pieces between the shorter shafts. In one instance 

 in the north cloister there is a pillar made up of no less than three 

 shafts of exactly the same pattern, piled one over the other. This 

 may be seen in Beato's photograph of this cloister (see the 4th pillar 

 on the left hand). The general effect of these large rows of made-up 

 columns is certainly rich and pleasing ; but this effect is due to the 

 kindly hand of time, which has almost entirely removed the eoatino* 

 of plaster with which the whole of these beautifully sculptured pillars 

 were once barbarously covered by the idol-hating Musalmans. 



75. The same doubling up of the old Hindu pillars has been follow- 

 ed in the cloister of the large Court of the Kutb Minar, the shaft of 

 one plain pillar being placed over another to obtain height. A similar 

 re-arrangement may be observed in the Court of the Jdmai or I)ina 

 Masjid of Kanoj commonly called Sita-ka-Basui, or " Sita's kitchen." 



76. The number of decorated pillars now remaining in the Court- 

 yard of the Great Mosque around the Iron Pillar, is, as nearly as I 

 could reckon them, 340; but as the cloisters are incomplete, the 

 original number must have been much greater. My reckoning makes 

 them 450. In the interior of the Great Mosque itself, there are 35 

 pillars now remaining, of a much larger size and of a somewhat 

 different style of decoration. When the Mosque was complete, there 

 must have been not less than 76 of these pillars. Of the plain pillars 

 in the Court-yard of the Kutb Minar, I counted 376, but the total 

 number required to complete the cloisters would be about 1,200. 



77. I have given these figures in detail, for the purpose of corro- 

 borating the statement of the Musalman conqueror, with regard to 

 the number of temples that were standing in Dilli, at the close of the 

 Hindu power. The usual number of columns in a Hindu temple is 

 from 20 to 30, although a few of the larger temples may have from 50 to 

 60. But these are exceptional cases, and they are more than balanced 

 by the greater number of smaller temples, which have not more than 

 12 or 16 pillars. The great temple of Yishiupad at Gaya has 50 

 pillars, and Mr. Fergusson mentions that a temple of 56 pillars was 

 the most extended arrangement that he had met with under a single 

 dome.* The magnificent temple at Ohandrdvati, near Jhdlra Patan, 

 and the pillared temple of Ganthai, at Kajraha, have only 28 columns 



* Illustrations of Indian Architecture, Introd. p, 18. 



