गुप्त अभिलेख संग्रह (जे. एफ. फ्लीट - गुप्त सम्राटों एवं परवर्ती नरेशों के ऐतिहासिक पाषाण व ताम्रलेख)

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS; No. 33, PLATE XXI B. 143
The column with the present inscription lies, partially buried, north and south, with
the top to the north. The base of it is rectangular, about 3' 4" square by 4' 5" high;
and, as there is no socket at the bottom to indicate that it was fitted into any masonry
foundation, this part must have been buried when the column stood upright. From this
base there rises a sixteen-sided shaft, each face of which is about 8½" broad where it
starts from the base; part of the shaft, about 17' 0 in length, is still connected with the
base, making the length of this fragment about 21' 5", and the present inscription, occu-
pying five of the sixteen faces, is on this fragment, the bottom line being about 2' 2"
above the top of the base. Immediately in continuation of this, there lies the remainder
of the shaft, about 17' 10" long; at the upper end of this, the faces are each about 7"
broad, shewing that the column tapers slightly from bottom to top. The upper end of
this fragment is flat, with a round socket projecting from it; which shews these two
fragments make up the entire shaft, the total length of which was thus about 39' 3", or
34' 10" above the base. This column appears to have broken naturally in falling, and not
to have been deliberately divided, as the other was, in the manner described below. The
next part of this column, the lower part of the capital, lies about forty yards away to the
north, close up to the hedge of the hamlet, and is a fluted bell, about 2' 6" high and 3' 2"
in diameter, almost identical in design with the corresponding part of a small pillar from
an old Gupta temple at Sâñchi, drawn by General Cunningham in the Archæol. Surv. Ind.
Vol. X. Plate xxii. No. 1. In the bottom of it there is a socket-hole, about 11" in dia-
meter, answering in size to the socket on the top of the shaft; and on the top there is a
projecting socket. About twenty-five yards south of this, and fifteen yards north of the
column, I found a flat stone buried in the ground just level with the surface; and, on
excavating it, it proved to be the next portion, the square upper part of the capital. It
measures about 2' 8" high by 3' 10" square: the vertical corner edges are trimmed off.
I could not get at the bottom of it; but there must be there a socket-hole, answering to
the projecting socket on the top of the bell-shaped part that came below it. I only
exposed one side of it; but this was sufficient to shew that it is a lion-capital, exactly
like the capital of the other column, noticed more fully below. On the top surface of it,
there is in the centre a circular socket-hole about 11½" in diameter and 4" deep, with eight
other rectangular socket-holes round it, one in the centre of each side, and one opposite
each corner. The total length of this column, up to the top of the lion-capital, is about
44' 5"; or forty feet above the ground, if it stood with the entire base buried. The
square lion-capital must have been surmounted by a statue or statues, of the same kind
as that which stands on the summit of the column at Êraṇ¹ which has on it Budha-
gupta's inscription, No. 19 above, page 88; but I cannot feel sure of having found it.
I found, indeed, in the same field, towards the west side, in three pieces, a very well
executed sandstone bas-relief slab, 9' 0" high, with a rectangular pedestal 3' 2" broad
by 1' 8" deep and 8" high, of a male figure, standing, somewhat larger than life-size, wearing
a kirîṭa or high head-dress, with necklace and armlets, and draped from the waist down-
wards, with a small figure standing by the right leg. And close by this there were, in two
pieces, the kirîṭa and the head and shoulders of another figure of the same size, evident-
ly a duplicate of the above. Unless, however. there were some intervening parts that

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¹ See Archæol. Surv. Ind. Vol. X. p. 81, and Plate xxvi.