Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c27.s2.t1: The Delhi Iron Pillar
Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c27.s2.t1
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The Delhi Iron Pillar
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In Meharauli, six miles south of New Delhi, there is the famous 1600-year old Iron Pillar which is a forge-welded wrought iron structure assaying approximately 0.15 per cent carbon, 0.25 P, 0.005 S, 0.05 Si, 0.02 N, 0.05 Mn, 0.03 Cu, 0.05 Ni and balance 99+ iron. The pillar has rusted little over the ages, and thus remains the centre of attraction for historians and metallurgists all over the world.
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The pillar is 737.5 cm high of which 50 cm is below ground level and 45 cm is surrounded by a stone platform. The diameter of the pillar at the ground level is about 41.6 cm tapering upwards to about 30.4 cm just under the decorative capital which tops the column. Below the ground level, the pillar widens to a diameter of 62 cm. On excavation (Ghosh, 1963), a heavy slab of stone was found horizontally on the stone foundation of the yard; on this slab was a thick lead plate (99.2 % lead with little Cu and Ag) on which the iron pillar rested. The base of the pillar was flat, and eight small projections shaped as the toes of an elephant were seen at equal intervals. These eight iron rods protruded and penetrated into the thick lead plate. The weight of the pillar is estimated to be more than 6096 kg. The top surface is flat and a separate cylinder of solid iron forced into a hollow space provided in the main pillar. The central rectangular slot in the iron cylinder probably served to accommodate flag-staff.
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The Sanskrit inscription on the pillar (even now sharp and distinct) states in three verses how the king Candragupta Vikramāditya II (AD 375-413) erected the pillar as a dhwaja or monument in a shrine dedicated to Viṣṇu, on his demitting his office (as king) and his taking to another, i.e., the life of renouncement of the world. On a unique coin-type of Kumāragupta I, son and successor of Candragupta Vikramāditya II, the new ruler is seen saluting his old parents of the iron pillar fame. The iron pillar was placed in the Viṣṇu temple (somewhere in north India — Kashmir or Mathurā?) from where the pillar was brought to the present site during the eleventh century AD.
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Sir Robert Hadfield (1912, 1922 and 1925) first studied the material of the pillar scientifically. A more thorough investigation was presented by Ghosh (1963). Wranglén (1970) has reviewed the various theories for the ‘rustlessness’ of the iron pillar.