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108
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[APRIL, 1908.
Assaming, however, that there were four pillars originally, they would have enclosed & rectangular space of 211 ft. by 67 ft. The remains at A and B, however, stand on a sort of terrace about 4 ft. higher than the general level on which E and Flie. This terrace is certainly the site of old foundations. If so, the monoliths E and F must have stood in front of the building to which A and B belonged, either forming a gateway or simply stunding alone. There is not a dissimilar gateway to the fine old temple at Baro, also in Gwalior State. The dwārpāla's figures lying near the pillars would support the hypothesis of a gateway.
To turn to the individual pillars. The pillar at E is broken into two pieces, but is otherwise in fair preservation. It consisted of a single sandstone block with total length of 39 ft. 5 ins., the lower piece now measuring 21 ft. 8 ins. and the upper 17 ft. 5 ins., while the base is formed of a cube of 4 ft. 3 ins.
About twenty yards beyond the top of the pillar, Gt in the Plan, lies the rectangular cop, into which the column is fitted. It is a square of 3 ft. 8 ing. and shows on one side the hole into which the top of the column was fixed, and on the reverse side the sockets by which the bell and lion capital was attached ; the bell lies a little way off, but the lips have vanished.
The second column, F in the Plan, is incomplete, but was undoubtedly a replica of E, and is lying as it fell, the bell capital and lions being just in front of it, while a part of the shaft lies at H.
Close to these pillars lie two stone figures, shown at and D in the Plan. They represent dwārpālas, and are carved to stand, respectively, on the right and left of a gateway. They would certainly seem to have stood one beside each pillar.. The general appearance of these figures, of which that at C is in good condition, is given in Plate II, fig. 1. The figure wears an elaborate and well-executed head-dress. The muslin waist-cloth is also well represented. Each of the dwārpālas is accompanied by a small dwarf, whose head-dress is very much like a judge's wig, a form of head-dress not uncommon in sculpture of the Gupta period. The dimensions of these Figures are as given below -
ft. ins. r Canopy stone, above Figure
Head-dress... ** Face Chin to Top of Thigh. ...
Top of Thigh to Knee Dwārpāla ...
Knee to Pedestal ... *
..
.
0
10
10 3 Length of Foot ...
... ... 0 10 Across Shoulders ...
... ..2 0 Dwarf ... Total Length ... ... ... 1 8 The features of both are flat with broad noses; the ear-rings are in the shape of lotus flowers.
The site where these pillars lie has long been used as a quarry both by the inhabitants of Mandasor and the Railway Contractor, the Rajputāna-Malwā line passing within a hundred yards of the spot. The soil is of the "black-cotton" class and the rock in the neighbourhood is Deccan trap. The sandstone pillars must thus have been brought from a considerable distance.
