JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY 



Documents relating to The Gates of Somnath; forwarded to the 

 Society by the Government of India. With Plates. 



Report of a Committee assembled by Order of Major General Nott, 

 to report on the state of the Gates brought from Ghuznee. 



Camp near Peshawur, Sth November, 1842. 



Considering the great age of these gates, the probable injury sus- 

 tained by them in their displacement from the temple of Somnauth, and 

 transport to Ghuznee, the circumstances of their having been taken 

 down and buried during the invasion of Afghanistan by Chenghiz 

 Khan, to preserve them from destruction by the troops of that con- 

 queror, and their subsequent disinterment and re-erection, they must be 

 deemed in good preservation. Great care has been observed in their 

 packing and carriage since their removal from the tomb of Mahmood 

 at Ghuznee, and they do not appear to have sustained any material 

 damage from their transport thus far on their return to India. 



The tomb of Mahmood of Ghuznee has been for ages a place of 

 pilgrimage, almost of adoration, to Mahomedans, and the gates objects 

 of especial attention ; it is not therefore matter of surprise, that the 

 lower portions of the gates within the reach of a man's hand have 

 suffered greatly ; the carved work has in some places disappeared, small 

 portions having probably, from time to time, been abstracted as relics. 

 Here and there pieces of carved wood, perhaps of the same antiquity 

 as the gates brought with them from Somnauth, but dissimilar in pat- 

 tern, have been used to replace the original carving, and in other places 



No. 134. New Series, No. 50. i. 



