Iron in Ancient India c6.s4.4

c6.s4.4

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."