Book Title: Kahau Stambh evam Kshetriya Puratattv ki Khoj
Author(s): Satyendra Mohan Jain
Publisher: Idrani Jain

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 82
________________ कहाऊँ स्तम्भ एवं क्षेत्रीय पुरातत्व की खोज ७७ lying on the ridge, north of Delhi, where it had been set up by Firoz Shâh, in his hunting lodge; and was re-erected in 1867. Two other exist in Champaran district at Radhia, and Mathia, and a fragment of another was recognized - utilized as a roller for the station roads by an utilitarian member of the Civil Service. The most complete shaft, however, is that which in 1837, was found lying on the ground in the fort at Allahabad, and then re-erected with a pedestal, from a design by Captain Smith. This pillar is more than usually interesting, as in addition to the Asoka inscriptions it contains one by Samudragupta (A.d. 380 to 400), detailing the glories of his reign, and the great deeds of his ancestors. It seems again to have been thrown down and was re-erected, as a Persian inscription tells us, by Jahangir (A.D. 1605), to commemorate his accession. It is represented without the pedestal (Woodcut No.4). The shaft, it will be observed is more than 3 feet wide at the base, diminishing to 2 feet 2 inches at the summit, which in a length of 33 feet looks more like the tapering of the stem of a tree - a deodar pine, for instance -than anything designed in stone. Like all the others of this class, this lât has lost its crowning ornament, which probably was a Buddhist emblem - a wheel or the triratna ornament - but the necking still remains (Woodcut No.5), and is almost a literal copy of the honeysuckle ornament we are so familiar with as used by the Greeks with the lonic order. In this instance, however, it is hardly probable that it was introduced direct by the Greeks, but is more likely to have been borrowed, through Persia, from Assyria, whence the Greeks also originally obtained it. The honeysuckle ornament, again, occurs as the crowning member of a pillar at Sankîsâ, in the Doâb, half-way between Mathurâ and Kanauj (Woodcut No. 6), and this time surmounting a capital of so essentially Persepolitan a type, that there can be Jain Education International For Personal & Private Use Only www.jainelibrary.org


Page Navigation
1 ... 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98