1837.] Account of the broken pillar at Delhi. 795 



" This very ancient Hindu pillar was dug out of some ruins near a 

 boulee (baoli) or well, and was probably destroyed by the blowing up 

 of a powder magazine which I understand once existed near the spot. 

 It consists of five pieces, which when put together measure 32|- feet 

 long : the diameter of the largest piece is 3 feet 2 inches, and that of 

 the smallest 2^ feet. The total weight 372 maunds. 



The extreme antiquity of the pillar is vouched by its weather-worn 

 aspect, which must needs be the effect of storms and rains that ran 

 their destructive or beneficial course many centuries ago, since the 

 fragments of this column have only been recently disinterred from the 

 mass of ruin, evidently Hindu, where they had reposed in silence 

 and darkness for ages. 



I call the ruins ( which are those of a well and its attendant 

 edifices — hewn in the live rock of the hill) Hindu, both from the style, 

 which resembles that of the more ancient parts of the Kutab and 

 from the materials, which in this case also, are quartz, of which 

 intractable rock the Mussulmans seldom or ever appear to have 

 attempted the sculpture. The pillar, indeed, is sandstone, and to 

 its perishable nature is to be attributed the imperfect state of the 

 inscriptions. I shall await with some impatience your opinion as to 

 their age and import, and whether their date be anterior to those 

 which have been so unexpectedly deciphered on the lats of Feroz 

 Shah, Allahabad, Bettiah, &c. Hindu tradition dwells fondly on 

 the name and exploits of the raja Prithu or Pithoura, whose name 

 exists from Petora-gurh near Almorah, by Delhi, down to Ajmere, 

 where every thing great or ancient in architecture is referred with one 

 consent to this Indian ' Arthur/ 



§ 3. Note on the locality of the lats of Delhi and Allahabad. 



Lieut. Kittoe has favored me with a reply to that part of my 

 papers wherein I called attention to the nature of the buildings at 

 Feroz's menagerie. He also conjectures that the bird mentioned as 

 ambakapilikd should be read ambakd, (or amrakd) pillaka, the pilak or 

 yellow bird of the mangoe, known to Europeans as the mangoe bird, 

 from its appearance when that fruit comes into season ; pilak is the 

 present native name, from pila yellow. Mr. Tregear also suggests 

 the same interpretation, and I have no doubt of its correctness. 

 Remarks on the locality of the Idts of Allahabad and Delhi. 



The Allahabad pillar stood formerly on a stone terrace within the 

 fortress and near the Jumna gate ; not far from the spot, is a temple 

 (now under ground) called "Pdtdl Puri" (xTTcTT 1 ^ "$f\), in which is the 

 stump of a Banyan tree called " Achaya Bat" (^f^sj «f<j) : it is an 

 object of great veneration. 



