Meport of the Archaeological Survey. Hx 



old cupola of Firuz Shah, was still standing, although much ruined. 

 Blunt's rude Sketch, as given in the Asiatic Eesearches, conveys no 

 intelligible idea of the old cupola, and is sarcastically compared by 

 Eobert Smith to " a large stone harp." A better idea of the old 

 cupola will be formed from an aquatint view of the pillar given in 

 Blagdon's " Brief History of India," which was published about 18 — . 

 By comparing this view with the statement of the Natives that the 

 old cupola was a "plain square top on four stone pillars,"^ I think 

 that it would be quite possible to restore the upper part of the pillar 

 in a style that would harmonize with the rest of the building. It is 

 difficult, indeed, to conceive anything more incongruous than the 

 flimsy Mogul pavilion, which Eobert Smith fixed on the " top of this 

 grand and massive specimen of Pathan architecture." In my Note- 

 book of 1839, I find a remark that "the balustrades of the balconies 

 and the plain slight building on the top of the pillar do not harmo- 

 nize with the massive and richly ornamented Pathan architecture."' 

 Major Smith's pavilion was taken down in 1847 or 1848 by order of Lord 

 Hardin ge. I presume that this was done at the suggestion of his 

 eldest son, the present Lord Hardinge, whose known artistic taste and 

 skill would at once have detected the architectural unfitness of such 

 a flimsy pavilion for the summit of this noble column. 



111. On the 1st August 1803, the old cupola of the Kutb Minar 

 was thrown down, and the whole pillar seriously injured by an earth- 

 quake. A drawing of the pillar while it was in this state was made 

 by Captain Elliot upwards of two years after the earthquake, but the 

 engraving of this drawing is too small to show the nature of the 

 balustrades of the balconies. About this time the dangerous state of 

 the pillar was brought to the notice of the Governor- General, who 

 authorized the necessary repairs to be begun at once. This difficult 

 work was entrusted to Major Eobert Smith, of the Engineers, and 

 was completed by the beginning of the year 1828, at a cost of Es. 

 17,000, with a further charge of more than Es. 5,000 for clearing the 

 ruins around the pillar. The intricate nature of some of these repairs 

 can be best seen and understood by an examination of Mallitte's large 

 photograph of the lower balcony. All the forms of the mouldings 

 have been carefully preserved, but the rich ornamentation has been 



Eobert Smith's Report in Journal, Archaeological Society of Delhi. 



H 2 



