Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c22.3

c22.3

Of monuments remaining in India, the most famous is Chandragupta's wrought-iron pillar near Delhi, which weighs ten tons and is about fifteen hundred years old. Of this pillar, Ferguson† wrote that "it opens our eye to an unsuspected state of affairs to find the Hindus at that age capable of forging a bar of iron larger than any that have been forged even in Europe up to a very late date, and not frequently even now. . . . It is almost equally startling to find that after an exposure to wind and rain for fourteen centuries, it is unrusted, and the capital and inscription are as clear and as sharp now as when put up fourteen centuries ago." There are other monuments, such as the huge iron girders at Puri; the ornamental gates of Somnalli; and the 24 ft. wrought-iron gun at Nurvar, that bear witness to the metallurgical skill of the Hindus.