The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.510

v3.c20.510

The interest of Fīrūz in public works was not purely utilitarian, and he is remembered for two feats of engineering which appear to indicate an interest in archaeology, but may be more justly attributed to vanity. These were the removal to Delhi, from the sites on which they had been erected by Asoka, of two great inscribed monoliths. The first, known as the *Mināra-yi-Zarīn*, or golden pillar, was transferred from a village near Khizrābād, on the upper Jumna, to Delhi, where it was re-erected near the palace and great mosque at Fīrūzābād, and the second was transported from Meerut and set up on a mound near the *Kūshk-i-Shikār*, or hunting palace, near Delhi. The curious may find, in the pages of Shams-i-Sirāj 'Afīf, an elaborate and detailed description of the ingenious manner in which these two great pillars were removed and erected in their new positions. The difficult feat elicited the admiration of the Amīr Tīmūr when he invaded India, and the pillars, which are still standing, attracted the attention, in 1615, of 'the famous unwearied walker,' Tom Coryate, who erroneously supposed the Sanskrit and Prākrit inscriptions of Asoka to be Greek, and referred them to the time of Alexander the Great.