History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c26.s2.36

v2.c26.s2.36

As the inscription informs us the pillar was dedicated to Vishnu, there is little doubt that it originally supported a figure of Garuda on the summit, which the Muhammadans of course removed; but the real object of its erection was as a dhwaja or standard of the god Vishnu and to record the "defeat of the Vâhlikas,¹ across the seven mouths of the Sindhu," or Indus. It is, to say the least of it, a curious coincidence, that eight centuries afterwards men from that same Baktrian country should have erected a Jaya Stambha ten times as tall as this one, in the same courtyard, to celebrate their victory over the descendants of those Hindûs who so long before had expelled their ancestors from the country.