Tribes in Ancient India c9.71

c9.71

Smith remarks ³ that Mathurā was probably the original site of the celebrated iron pillar at Delhi, on which the eulogy of a powerful king named Chandra is incised. As Rapson says, we possess a most valuable monument of the Śaka Satraps of Mathurā, which was discovered by Bhagavānlāl Indrajī, who bequeathed it to the British Museum. ‘It is in the form of a large lion carved in red sandstone and intended to be the capital of a pillar. The workmanship shows undoubted Persian influence. The surface is completely covered with inscriptions in Kharosṭhī characters which give the genealogy of the Satrapal family ruling at Muttra. These inscriptions show that the Satraps of Muttra were Buddhists’.⁴