ASI Report for the Year 1871-72 Delhi and Agra (Volume IV)

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THIS fourth volume of the Archaeological Survey of India contains the first work of my t.wu assistants, Messrs. J. D. Beglar and A. C. L. Carlleyle. As the final arrangements for the beginning of the survey were not completed until the end of February 1871, when it was too late in the season to go into camp, I assigned to them, as their first work, the exploration of the two great cities of Delhi and Agra, a task which could be carried on throughout the hot weather without much exposure to the sun. The present volume is the result of their labours, to which I wish to add some introductory remarks on a few of the more important points regarding which my views differ from those of my assistants. This expression of my opinion is the more necesa sary regarding the Kutb Masjid and Kutb Minar at Delhi, lest my silence should be taken for acquiescence in views with which I totally disagree.

DELHI. The two buildings of greatest interest in old Delhi are the Kutb Masjid with its magnificent arches and colonnades. and the noble Muazzin's pillar, called the Kutb Minar, which is nearly 250 feet in height. The erection of the masjid has always been assigned to Kutb-ud-din Aibeg, the first Muhammadan king of Delhi. Indeed this assignment is distinctly stated in the inscription over the eastern or main entrance to the masjid, with the addition of the important fact that it was built out of the material furnished by twenty-seven ruined Hindu temples. That the pillars of the colonnades are Hindu is obvious to every one; and at the same time it is equally obvious that they have been re-arranged and made up to their present height by the Muhammadans, by piling the shafts of two or three pillars one over the other. This fact was equally clear to Mr. Fergusson as it is to me. In the following report Mr. Beglar admits that the pillars have been more or less re-arranged, but he contends that they occupy their original positions in the colonnade of a single Hindu temple, and that their present height is exactly that of the original Hindu colonnade. Consistently with this view he is obliged to condemn the record of the Muhammadan builder of the masjid regarding the destruction of twenty-seven Hindu temples as a false boast.

**Contents and Sample Pages**