222 Report of the Archeological Survey. [No. 4, 
which the m, 6, &c., retain the old form.” Of one of these names 
he remarks ‘‘ Now it would have been exceedingly difficult, if not 
impossible, to have cut the name No. 10 up and down at right angles 
to the other writing, while the pillar was erect, to say nothing of the 
place being out of reach, unless a scaffold were erected on purpose, 
which would hardly be the case, since the object of an ambitious visitor 
would be defeated by placing his name out of sight and in an unread- 
able position.” The pillar ‘ was erected as Samudra Gupta’s arm, 
and there it probably remained until overthrown again by the idol- 
breaking zeal of the Musalmans ; for we find no writings on it of the 
Péla, or Sarnath type (¢.¢., of the tenth century), but a quantity 
appears with plain legible dates from the Samvat year 1420, or A. D. 
1363, down to 1660 odd, and it is remarkable that these occupy 
one side of the shaft, or that which was uppermost when the pillar 
was in a prostrate position. A few detached and ill executed Nagari 
names with Samvat dates of 1800 odd, show that even since it was 
laid on the ground again by General Garstin, the passion for recording 
visits of piety or curiosity has been at work.” In this last passage 
James Prinsep has made a mistake in the name of the Vandal Engineer 
who overthrew the stone pillar, because it stood in the way of his new 
line of rampart near the gateway. It was General Kyd, and not 
General Garstin, who was employed to strengthen the Fort of Allaha- 
bad, and his name is still preserved in the suburb of Kydganj, on the 
Jumna, immediately below the city. 
279. The pillar was again set up in 1838 by Captain Edward 
Smith, of the Engineers, to whom the design of the present capital is 
entirely due. At first it was intended to have placed a fancy flower as 
an appropriate finish to the pillar, but as the people had a tradition 
that the column was originally surmounted by the figure of a lion, it 
was suggested by a Committee of the Asiatic Society that the design 
of the new capital should be made as nearly as possible the same as the 
original, of which the Bakra and Navandgarh or (Mathiya) pillars, 
were cited as examples. The lion statues which crown the bell capitals 
of these two pillars I have seen and admired, and I can affirm that 
they are the figures of veritable lions. Both of them are represented 
half couchant, with the head raised and the mouth open. The bell 
capital swells out boldly towards the top to receive a massive abacus, 
which forms the plinth of the statue. In these examples the broad 

