The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c18.83

v2.c18.83

**Candesvara column.** In the village of Candeśvara about a mile from Yājapur, there is a monolyth standing amidst some jungle, and close by a hut. It is called Sabhā Stambha; it measures 36 ft. 10 in., the shaft being 29 feet. As far as the shaft is concerned, it is the exact counterpart of the Sun pillar at Puri, a polygon of 16 sides, most beautifully and truly cut. But its base and capital are different. The column is of chlorite, but the base, as now seen, is of gneiss, rough and unfinished, showing holes, whereby was attached an outer layer of chlorite slabs. What the shape of the outer layer was cannot be guessed; but looking to the arrangement of the core—a series of four steps—it must have been totally different from the elegant and highly artistic base of the Puri pillar. Babu Chandrasekhara Banurji says that 'there was at the foot an inscription on a slab which a Sannyāsī destroyed in the hope of obtaining the treasure which he **[159]** supposed was hidden hehind it'³⁰. Mr. Stirling evidently refers to that when he says 'that on one of the pillars an inscription has been discovered, which is said to be of the same character exactly as that on the brow of the Khaṇḍagiri cavern of Khurdâ'³¹. The inscription, however, is lost and no deduction can be founded on it. The holes in the base have suggested the idea that they have been made by order of Kâlâpâhâḍa to tie ropes to knock the column down and that trains of elephants had been set to effect the demolition. This is simply a romantic fable. Obviously no attempt of the kind was ever made, for had it been made it would have for certain proved successful. The Pathans were giants in architecture and to them the knocking down of a chlorite pillar of 16 inches' diameter would have been a mere child's play.