Iron in Ancient India c6.s4: Iron Pillar at Delhi

Iron in Ancient India c6.s4

Language: English

Iron Pillar at Delhi

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This celebrated iron-pillar stands in a quadrangle adjoining the famous Kutub Minar, which is situated in a village called Mihrauli (Mihirapuri) about 12 miles from the city of Delhi. It stands about 22 ft. above the ground, and exact excavations have shown that it goes about 20 inches below the ground. Roscoe and Schorlemmer, while admiring the metallurgical skill of the ancient Hindus, have repeated the original mistake of General Cunningham in thinking it to be 60 ft. in length, while as a matter of fact it is 23 ft. 8 in. long. Writes Fergusson: "It is a curious illustration how difficult it sometimes is to obtain correct information in India, that when General Cunningham published his reports in 1871, he stated, apparently on the authority of Mr. Cooper, Deputy Commissioner, that an excavation had been carried down to a depth of 26 ft. but without reaching the bottom. The man in charge, however, assured him that the actual depth reached was 35 ft. (Vol. I, p. 169). He consequently estimated the whole length at 60 ft., but fortunately ordered a new excavation, determined to reach the bottom and found it at 20 inches below the surface (Vol. IV, p. 28). At a distance of a few inches below the surface it expands in a bulbuous form to a diameter of 2 ft. 4 in. and rests on a gridiron of iron bars, which are fastened with lead into the stone pavement."¹

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¹ Fergusson, History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, Vol. II, p. 279.

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The diameter of the pillar at the lower end is 16·4" and towards the top at the capital 12·05". The capital which is engraved and of the bull pattern is 3 ft. 6 in. in length. The weight is estimated to exceed six tons.

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There is an inscription on the pillar which is unfortunately undated, being a posthumous eulogy in verse of a king named Chandra. The script as well as the text of the inscription have served as a clue to the fixation of the date of the construction of the pillar. Prinsep was of opinion that the script was of the 3rd or 4th century A.D., while Bhai Daju held that it was of the end of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth century. Fergusson supposes it to be the work of some of the Chandra Rajas of the Gupta family and places it in 363 or 400 A.D. Dr. Hornœle judges the characters to be of the Gupta variety of the North-Eastern alphabet and unhesitatingly ascribes the iron pillar to Chandra Gupta II and assigns it the approximate date of 410 A.D.² Dr. Hornœle's opinion is fully confirmed by Vincent Smith who on the examination of the text of the inscription has also come to the conclusion that the King referred to is no other than Chandra Gupta II. We give below a translation of the inscription as given by Dr. Fleet and modified by Vincent Smith.¹ "The lofty standard of the divine Vishnu was erected on Mount Vishnupada by King Chandra, whose thoughts were devoted in faith to Vishnu. The beauty of that king's countenance was as that of the full moon ;—by him, with his own arm, sole world-wide domain was acquired, and long held; and although, as if wearied, he has in bodily form quitted this earth, and passed to the other-world country won by his merit, yet like the embers of a quenched fire in a great forest, the glow of his foe-destroying energy quits not the earth; by the breezes of his prowess the southern ocean is still perfumed;—by him, having crossed the seven mouths of the Indus, were the Vahlikas vanquished in battle; and when warming in the Vanga countries he breasted and destroyed the enemies confederate against him, fame was inscribed on [their] arm by his sword."

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² Indian Antiquary, Vol. XXI, pp. 42-44.

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¹ Vincent Smith: Journal, Royal Asiatic Society, 1897, p. 6. Vincent Smith writes: "The word bhāvēna, which we translate 'in faith,' is actually dhāvēna. The earlier translators regarded this word as a proper name, and supposed the name of the king commemorated to be Dhāva. But the construction of the sentence scarcely admits of this interpretation. The use of the two names Dhāva and Chandra for the one person in such a brief record, without a word of explanation or amplification, would be intolerably harsh composition, and it is to my mind quite incredible that the writer intended to give the king two names. The correction from dhāvēna to bhāvēna appears to be both necessary and certain. The error is easily explained by the fact that a very slight slip of the engraver's tool was sufficient to convert the character used for bh into a form which may be read as dh."

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Iron Pillar at Delhi. (Photograph by Johnston and Hoffmann, Calcutta.)

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The facts recorded in the inscription thus are that the pillar was erected in honour of Vishnu on Mount Vishnupada (Vishnu's foot) by a monarch named Chandra, who had long enjoyed world-wide sovereignty, but was deceased at the time when the inscription was engraved, and that this sovereign defeated a hostile confederacy in the Vanga countries, and had, after crossing the seven mouths of the Sindhu or Indus, vanquished the Vahlikas. Vincent Smith is convinced that the emperor referred to in the inscription is no other than Chandra Gupta II, in whose reign the Gupta empire attained its climax. Chandra Gupta II died in A.D. 413, and the posthumous inscription, which was presumably executed by his successor soon after his decease, must be dated not later than A.D. 415. This determination settles within a year or two the date of a very remarkable and interesting monument which has always attracted the attention of all travellers.

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There is another thing in connection with the erection of this pillar which is of great importance. The inscription says that the pillar was erected on a hill called Vishnupada, whilst as a matter of fact the place in which it stands at present is a level country. Vincent Smith contends, and there is evidently much force in his contention, that the pillar was originally erected in some other place which "must have been a well-known spot frequented by Vaishnava pilgrims, within the Gupta dominions and not very remote from Delhi. All the conditions of such a place are satisfied by Mathurā" which is less than eighty miles from Kutab Minar. Vincent Smith supposes that "the Katra Mound, where the magnificent temple of Vishnu, under the name of Keshava, once stood, may very probably prove to be 'Vishnupada giri,' the mount of Vishnu's footmark, mentioned in the inscription." He also concludes that the pillar was removed to its present site by Ananga Pal II in or about A.D. 1050 when he founded the city of Delhi *de novo*. This conclusion is supported by the comparatively new structure of the platform on which the pillar is erected as well as the fact that there is another inscription on the pillar itself in which Ananga Pal announces the date of the foundation of Delhi by himself.

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For some time there existed a good deal of misconception regarding the composition of the material of which the pillar was made. There was a local tradition that it was made of "sapta-dhātu" or seven metals, and from the peculiar yellow colour of the top of the pillar many people supposed it to be a casting of brass or copper. All doubts were removed when General Cunningham had two specimens of the metal analysed, one by Dr. Murray Thomson of the Roorkee Engineering College and the other by Dr. Percy of the School of Mines. Both found it to be wrought iron without an alloy. The specific gravity of the metal was 7·66, that of purest wrought iron being 7·84. Quite recently a complete analysis of the metal has been published by Sir Robert Hadfield,¹ who found its specific gravity to be 7·81. The results of analysis are:—

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¹ Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, 1912, Vol. 85, No. 1, p. 170 (slip).

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| Iron | .. | .. | 99·720 per cent. |
| Carbon | .. | .. | ·080 " |
| Silicon | .. | .. | ·046 " |
| Sulphur | .. | .. | ·006 " |
| Phosphorus | .. | .. | ·114 " |
| Manganese | .. | .. | Nil " |
| **Total** | .. | .. | **99·966** |

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The analysis shows that the metal was pure wrought iron having no manganese, "a somewhat special point, as wrought iron usually contains manganese." The low proportion of sulphur shows that the fuel employed must have been charcoal and that the ores must also have been pure. It will be explained later on that probably "high phosphorus and low sulphur and manganese" have contributed to the capacity of the iron in resisting the rusting influence of rain and wind for full fifteen centuries.

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This remarkable monument of the metallurgical skill of the ancient Hindus has won the unstinted admiration of all who have seen it. Chemists, archæologists, travellers, engineers and geologists are unanimous in pronouncing this pillar of wrought iron as unique in the annals of metallurgy in the four quarters of the globe. We cannot do better than conclude our account of this pillar with quotations from the opinions of some of these expert observers.

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Roscoe and Schorlemmer in their well-known "Treatise on Chemistry" have remarked that "the dexterity exhibited by the Hindus in the manufacture of wrought iron may be estimated from the fact of the existence in the Mosque of the Kutub near Delhi of a wrought iron pillar no less than 60 feet in length. This pillar stands about 30 feet out of ground and has an ornamental cap bearing an inscription in Sanskrit belonging to the fourth century. It is not an easy operation at the present day to forge such a mass with our largest rolls and steam hammers; how this Could be effected by the rude hand-labour of the Hindus we are at a loss to understand." Though the two distinguished chemists have made a mistake, as has already been pointed out, in thinking that the Delhi pillar is 60 feet high, while as a matter of fact its height is 23 feet 8 inches, nevertheless their eulogy is thoroughly well-deserved. Roscoe and Schorlemmer were evidently ignorant of the existence of the Dhar pillar, which is 43 feet 8 inches long, and the numerous iron girders in the temples of Orissa, some of which are even 35 feet in length. These gigantic beams and pillars were constructed, as has been explained afterwards, by forging small blooms of wrought iron.

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Fergusson, the great archæologist, has written "Taking A.D. 400 as a mean date—and it certainly is not far from the truth—it opens our eyes to an unsuspected state of affairs to find the Hindus at that age capable of forging a bar of iron larger than any that have been forged even in Europe up to a very late date, and not frequently even now. As we find them, however, some centuries afterwards, using bars as long as this in roofing the porch of the temple at Kanarak, we must now believe that they were much more familiar with the use of this metal than they afterwards became. It is almost equally startling to find that after an exposure to wind and rains for fourteen centuries, it is unrusted, and the capital and inscription are as clear and as sharp now as when put up fifteen centuries ago."¹

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¹ Fergusson, "History of Indian and Eastern Architecture," Vol. II, p. 280.

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The opinion of two engineers is given below. One engineer says, "Nothing heretofore brought to light in the history of metallurgy seems more striking to the reason as well as the imagination, than this fact that from the remote time when Hengist was ruling Kent and Cedric landing to plunder our barbarous ancestors in Sussex down to that of our Third Henry, while all Europe was in the worst darkness and confusion of the Middle Ages—when the largest and best forging producible in Christendom was an axe or a sword blade—these ancient peoples in India possessed a great iron manufacture, whose products Europe even half a century ago could not have equalled." Another engineer's opinion will also be found to be interesting—"while considering forging of large masses of iron and steel, it is not easy to forget the impression caused by first seeing the iron pillar at Delhi. This column of wrought iron which is 16 inches in diameter, of which 22 feet are above the ground, and which is said to be 50 feet long and weighing about 18 tons, is finished perfectly round and smooth, with an ornamental top, and was made many centuries ago from iron produced direct from the ore and built up piece by piece. Remembering the lack of facilities men had in those days for first forging and then welding together such an enormous mass makes one wonder at the iron worker of those days, who must have possessed engineering ability claiming the admiration of our times. It is questionable whether the whole of the iron works of Europe and America could have produced a similar column of wrought iron so short a time ago as the exhibition of 1851."¹

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¹ Presidential address to the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, London, 1905.