Ow tue Coorus Minar. 483 
ascertaining its antiquity. To the west of the northern entrance of the 
arches is a tomb’ called that of SHems-un-pin Atremsi but I was unable 
to decipher any of its inscriptions. 
I swat now offer the results which appear to me deducible from an 
attentive examination of these ruins. ‘Ist. That the line of arches is the 
éast front of an intended mosque, which was conimenced under the reion 
of Monammep  Guori, by his viceroy Coorus, and carried on by 
AvremsH, but never compleated. 2d. That the Cootub Minar is of equal 
antiquity, but that, it never was intended to form any part of the mosque, 
and was erected within the precincts of the temple as a monument of the 
supremacy of the Musselman faith, over the religion of the conquered. 
Hindus. 3d. That’ the unfinished Minar is equally ‘independant of the 
intended mosque. 
Tur regularity of the range of arches, and the similarity in size and 
generally in ornament, of corresponding portions, at once shew that they 
belong to one building, and that this was intended te be a mosque is obvi- 
ous, not only from the circumstance of its being'called so in the inscription 
on the centre arch, but also from the facts of it’s being exactly in the 
meridian, and of the arches being profusely covered with extracts from - 
the Koran: it was intended for the east front of the mosque, because that 
side is richly adorned with carving, and the western on the contrary quite 
plain; and also beeatise in this country, the western wall of every mosque, 
being that ‘which faces Mecca, is invariaby closed, such is. the case with 
the Adina mosque near Malda, which was built by Avr (Secander Sani) 
) 
