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

144 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM, VOL. III.
have been altogether lost, these slabs cannot belong to the columns, since their pedestals
have no sockets to fit into the socket-holes on the tops of the lion-capitals.¹
The other column, with the fragmentary duplicate copy of this inscription, No. 34
below, Plate xxiC., stood, as is shewn by the present position of its base, about twenty
yards north of the column that I have just described. When overthrown, it fell east and
west, with the top towards the west. The base is rectangular, about 3' 3" square by 3' 11" high.
Differing from the first column, the base here is followed by a concave circular part, about
1' 0" high. From this there rises a sixteen-sided shaft, each face of which is about 8"
broad where it starts from the base. But the portion of the shaft that remains attached
to the base is only about 1' 1" long; and a row of chisel-marks all round the column here,
shews that it was deliberately broken by the insertion of wedges. The next piece of the
column,—or rather a remnant of it, as it is broken vertically, and part of it has been lost,
—lies about three yards to the north of the base, and parallel with it, but in an inverted
position, with the upper end to the east. This piece is about 9' 0" long; and the rem-
nant of the duplicate inscription is here, on two of the faces; the bottom line of it being
about 2' 9½" above the square base. The next piece of the shaft is missing altogether,
and is supposed to be entirely buried somewhere in this field. The remainder of the
shaft, about 6' 9" in length, lies, almost entirely buried, a few yards to the west of the
portion including the base and the commencement of the shaft. Each face here is about
7" broad at the top; shewing that this column also tapers slightly from bottom to top.
The top of this fragment is flat, with a round socket projecting from it; which shews that
we have here the end of the shaft. Immediately west of this fragment, there lies the
fluted bell part of the capital, about 3' 0" high and 3' 3" in diameter, similar in design to
the same part of the capital of the other pillar. In the bottom of it there is a socket-hole,
about 11" in diameter, answering in size to the socket on the top of the shaft; and on the
top there is a projecting socket. Just to the west of this there lies, upside down and
partially buried, the next portion of the capital, the square upper part, measuring about
3' 0" high and 3' 10" square; the vertical corner edges are trimmed off. The bottom,
and one entire side and parts of two others, are exposed; and enough is visible to shew
that each side consists of a bas-relief sculpture of two lions, each sitting on its haunches
and facing to the corner, where it merges into the corresponding corner lion on the next
side;² with the head of a conventional siṁha or mythological lion in the centre, over the
backs of the lions. In the bottom of this stone there is a socket-hole, about 10½" in
diameter, answering to the projecting socket on the top of the bell-shaped part that came
just below it. And I dug under one of the corners of the top enough to find there a rec-
tangular socket-hole, which justifies us in assuming that the top has one circular and
eight rectangular socket-holes, just as in the top of the lion-capital of the first column.
As in the case of the first column, I cannot feel sure of having found the statue or statues
which must have stood on the top of it.
The two inscribed columns were evidently intended as a pair, though the full measure
of the second cannot be taken. From the distance between them; from the difference in
the detailed measures; and from the analogous instance of the Êraṇ column, as shewing
¹ There are some similar bas-relief slabs set up in a group under some palm-trees in another
field, about fifty yards away to the east from where the inscribed columns lie; but these, again, do not
appear to belong to the columns.
² Compare the lions on the upper part of the square portion of the capital of the Êraṇ column.