Structure and Symbolism of Ancient 'Asokan' Pillars

'Aśokan' Pillars: A Reassessment of the Evidence-II: Structure
Author(s): John Irwin

Source: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 116, No. 861 (Dec., 1974), pp. 712-727
Published by: Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.
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JOHN IRWIN
'Asokan' Pillars: a reassessment of the evidence-

AFTER more than ioo years of discussion, the god
dating
Ptah and
who was often depicted as a man-headed sphinx.
even the sequence of India's earliest sculptured monuments
The earliest type
- was apparently made of perishable materi-
als,
the so-called 'Agokan' or 'Mauryan' pillars - is still but at least by the eighth century s.c. the Egyptians
unsettled.
Opinions are so insecure and contradictory thatwere theconstructing
pillars them as lasting monuments. None of the
some have claimed as the earliest, others see as originals
the latest.
survives, but examples are often depicted in paint-
These differences are partly explained by dearth ingsof
andfixed
reproduced in the form of talismans. Two types of
points in the chronology, which has left too much djed-talismans
to purely are drawn at Fig.A.
subjective interpretation of style, and partly by what we now
recognize as a false premise - the idea that Agoka imported
foreign craftsmen, schooled in Perso-Hellenistic tradition,
to teach this pillar-art to the Indians.
If the latter assumption were valid, one would expect the
degree of Hellenistic influence to be a clue to sequence. But
in the first article we challenged this assumption, summar-
izing our conclusions as follows:
(i) That the pillars commonly called 'Abokan' or 'Mauryan'
do not mark the beginnings of monumental art in
India, but are the culmination of amucholdertraditionof
pillar-architecture. / A B
(2) That this tradition was religious, not imperial or
secular. (Front ($de)
(3) That with the single exception of the Sarnath pillar
A. Egyptian djed-talismans made after the form of
(Fig.2), which has to be viewed as a special case, the
alleged 'foreign' inspiration of the style had nothing
whatever to do with Perso-Hellenistic art of the post-
By 600 B.C. sphinx-columns commo
Alexandrian period, but is traceable to an earlier epoch especially as commemorative mon
when India was already linked culturally, as well asfashionable feature of Attic cemeterie
economically, with the civilizations of the ancient Near under democratic reforms, expenditur
East.
was curbed.5 One of the last and m
In developing the thesis from this point, we shall first examples is the Naxian sphinx-colum
consider the extent to which the form of 'Adokan' pillars is
left). The shaft, it will be noticed, is i
unique to India in the ancient world. Sir Mortimer Wheeler, used in contemporary buildings as roo
one of the strongest advocates of the theory that Agoka is virtually a weight-bearing column
imported Perso-Hellenistic craftsmen, has recently main- open and made to do service as a fre
tained (in contradiction, it would seem, to the logic of his in the usual Greek manner the shaft i
case) that free-standing pillar-architecture was unknown in ber of separate drums of stone dow
the classical West before the Romans.2 Here he was following
top of the other.
in the footsteps of the Indian scholar, D. R. Bhandarkar, The Indians alone in the ancient worl
who advanced the same claim more than half a century ago3
their votive pillars specially as free-st
and whose view has often been quoted. It is now time to for no other purpose. In other word
re-examine this idea, because if we do not do so we are likely
differs markedly from the Greek voti
to miss the subtlety of what really was unique about the in form to a standard than to a weigh
form of 'Abokan' pillars. shaft is formally and aesthetically der
Free-standing pillar-architecture seems to have begun
with the djed-pillar of the pre-dynastic Egyptians. The djed-
pillar was associated with kingship rites, fertility, and the4 The djed-talisman on the left at Fig.A is in t
4-21.3). The one on the right is in the Museum
972) and was excavated at El Kurru (Dows DUNH
Kush, El Kurru,
1 Part I was published in THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE, Cambridge,
VOl. CXV Mass. [195o], vol.1, p.9
[November
751-7 16 B.C.). According to GEORGES POSENER: A di
1973], pp.7o6-20o. Parts III and IV, to be subtitled 'The Capitals' and 'Sym-
London
bolism' respectively, will appear in later articles. [1962],
The series is djed pillarsfrom
condensed were commonly mad
material presented in the 1974 Lowell Institute wellLectures
as for the at living,
Boston,because
Massa-'djed' was homoph
'stability'
chusetts, the present article being an abbreviation or fourth
of the 'durability'.
and fifth
5 GISELA RICHTER: The archaic gravestones of Attica
lectures. Again I wish to acknowledge Miss Margaret Hall for her drawings and
her advice in matters of presentation; and Mrs 6 In this
Elinor connection,
Gadon who,see j. B.
with and K. SCHEFOLD: Di
the
Berlin in
help of the JDR 3rd Fund, visited the pillar-sites [194o],
India p.162.
on my At Plate 29 the authors p
behalf,
bringing back photographs and notes. votive pillar believed to have stood at Larissa but s
ItLondon
2 SIR MORTIMER WHEELER: Flames over Persepolis, is interchangeable in form with the roof-suppo
[x968], p.x 38.
edifice of the sixth century B.C. in typical Ionic
3 D. R. BHANDARKAR: Asoka, The Carmichael Lectures delivered at Calcutta
admit
University in 1923, published by the University that an
in 1925, element of speculation enters this r
p.2o6.
712
iii!ii!!~~~ii!!~~iiiiiiii......iii i ! ... ....... ,, ,
!iii~ii!iii;iiiiiiii i !ilii~i!!iii!i i ? !iiii~iiiii!!. . . i .. ...... . . . .iiiiii!iii

-7?- All
!ii~i~il~4 ,
1.... , jr
2.
2. The
The Sa-rna-th Capital.Polished
Sarnath Capital. Polishedsand-
sand-3.
3.Horserider
Horserider with
with sacred
sacred standard
standard (dhvafa)
(dhvaj'a). .Relief
Relief from
from Bharhut
Bharhut 4.
4. The
The VaisaliPilrSad5-TeLuy-
Vaisalt Pillar. Sand- 5
stone;
stone; height,
height,!2.i3
2-1 m.
m. (Sfirnfith Stfi1pa,
(Sarnath Stuipa, latesecond
late secondcentury
century B.C.
B.C. (Calcutta
(Calcutta Museum.)
Museum.)stone,
stone,withliteraeoPlshd
with little tracea
Museum.)
Museum.) polish.
polish. Present Preethihiegt
height height bv rud g
above
above
aboveground ."3m
ground, .(hm
c.8-23
originally
originallymr hn "nBhr)P
more than 1
mn. (Near BaahvlaeISre
m. (Near Basarh villagf
Muzaffarpur
Muzaffarpur itit i
District, Bi-
har.)
har.) Phioto"
Photo. lnrGd.
Elinor Gadon.
6. The Sankisa Elephant-capital. Polished sand- 7. The Sanchi Capital. Polished sandstone; 8. The Ramnpu~rva Lion-capi
stone. (Sankisa, Farrukhabad District, U.P.) height, 2 43 m. (Sanchi Museum.) .243 m. From Rampfirv
Photo: Archaeological Survey of India. Bihar. (Calcutta Mus
9.
Scale 1. Feet Itt o e Itch.
9. The shafts of the two Rfmpfirvi pillars as seen today. (Rfampfirvi,

Champfsran District, N. Bihar.) Photo: Elinor Gadon.
sO. Eeeavation of the Lion-pillar at Rampfirvfi in 1907. Photo: Archaeological
Survey of India.
II. Drawing of Rimpfrvfi Lion-pillar published with the first excavation

report, 1877, before the lion-sculpture had been discovered.
I2. Excavation of the Bull-pillar at Rfampfirvi in 1908. Photo: Archaeological
Survey of India.
I3. The Gotihawa pillar-stump, partly excavated. (Near Gotihawa village

on the Nepal side of Indo-Nepalese border.)
14. The Allahibfad Pillar-shaft as re-erected and seen today; originally from
Kosam
Gadon. (ancient Kauidmbi). (AllahSbid Fort, Allahfibfd. Photo: Elinor
15. The Kosam Pillar-shaft as re-erected and seen today. Kosam (ancient
Kaudimbi),
16. The HeliodorusU.P.)
Pillar-shaft (detail). Erected by the Greek ambassador to a
local Indian court at Besnagar, Central India; late second century B.C.
Drawing by Margaret Hall.
135 14- 5. 6.
'ASOKAN' PILLARS: A REASSeSSMENT OF THE EVIDY ENCE--t: STRUCTURE
Although portable sacred standards were in common
throughout the ancient world from Egyptian pre-dyna
times onwards,9 India alone, it seems, retained the form fo
monumental sculpture'.10 All shafts of 'Abokan' pillars ha
1Q
this character. But having stressed this feature common to
of them, we shall next take note of how much they differ
"TOPRA
DELH
60 e.0 A BS Viai
.... ...
A .A U El u YA
0 O I0PLA 3
8hor Who
HAND PI ACMOE "OOH.IT$
SA HI*efib Odus 0SCAL 0 I ma Es

qua's XPILLARS MOVED70o0 OTHERSITF
* LOCATIONS OF THE PILLARS
B. Left: th
aHER PLACES
Right: the
C. Map showing location of 'A'okan' pillars.
pole,from another. Thereand

are sixteen pillar shafts to be co
sidered:
therefor
lies a mu
which se
Location Surviving parts Emblem Figure
worship
I. Allahdbad Shaft Not known 14
(originally from (re-erected)
literatur
period Kosam, ancient and abacus of
they Kauimbi) had
battle by
to them in the Mahabharata show that the first aim in 2. Bodh Gaya Shaft only Elephant
inter-tribal fighting was destruction of the enemy's dhvaja, (re-erected)
because to do so was to leave him divinely unprotected. The
3. Delhi, pillar Shaft only Not known
dhvaja was worshipped before battle by the rite of circum-
ambulation (pradakshind), in the belief that the deity was No. x (originally (re-erected)
actually incumbent in it. In other words, the standard was from Topra)
not simply a symbol or fetish but an actual manifestation of
4. Delhi, pillar Shaft only Not known
the divine: in paradoxical terms, a sort of portable axis mundi.
We know what these portable standards looked like be-No.2 (originally (re-erected)
cause they are sometimes depicted in early Buddhist reliefs.from Meerut)
The example at Fig.3, from the Bharhut Stilpa railings,
shows a queenly personage on horseback carrying a Garuda- 5. Gotihawa, on Stump of shaft Not known 13
dhvaja (Garuda being the mythical bird, originally identified Nepal border and fragment
with the sun and with Indra as king of the gods, and at a of 'bell' of
later stage in the development of Indian mythology, with capital
Vishnu). The shaft, it will be noted, is a plain, smooth pole.
6. Kosam (ancient Shaft only Not known 15
i71n the Divydvaddna, the earliest surviving text mentioning pillars erected by
Kau4tmbi) (re-erected)
Agoka (and probably dating in its surviving form from about the first century
A.D.), the word used for the pillars is cihna, exactly corresponding to the mean-
ing 'emblem-bearing standard'. The first scholar to suggest a relationship o For the sacred standard in ancient Egypt, see HENRI FRANKFORT: Kingsh
between the Agokan pillar and the portable standard was A. K. MITRA: 'The the gods, Chicago [1948], pp.91-93; for Western Asia, JEAN PRZYLUSKI: 'Le
Mauryan Lits or Dhvaja-stambhas: do they constitute an independent de l'6tendard chez Scythes et dans l'Inde', Zalmoxis (Revue des etudes re
order?', Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, New Series, vol. euses), vol.I, Paris [1938], pp.i3-19.
XXIX [ 1933], PP.317-26. The author refers in this article to a still earlier paper 10 Here, the only Indian votive pillars we are discussing are the so-c
entitled 'The Dhvaja or standard in India', published in The Morning Star, Adokan pillars. Not all post-Adokan pillars retained this form. For instance
Patna [May-June, I932], which is unfortunately not accessible at any library Helioderus pillar at Besnagar, although called a dhvaja in its inscripti
in the U.K.
strongly influenced by the yfipa (sacrificial post of the Vedic Aryans). T
8 SIR JOHN MARSHALL: Mohenjodaro and the Indus civilization, vol.III, London
fully discussed in my article, 'The Heliodorus Pillar: a fresh appraisal',
19311, Plate CXVI, figs.5 and 8.
(Art and Archaeology Research Papers), No.6, London [December, 19741].
715
'ASOKAN' PILLARS: A REASSESSMENT OF TrHE EVIDENCE-t11 STRUCTURE
7. Lauriya-Arardj Shaft only Not known"I 15. SdrnAth Capital Quadruple 2
(incomplete); lions
8. Lauriya- Complete and Lion 5 stump and surmounted by
Nandangarh still in situ some other Wheel of Law
sections of (the latter
9. Nigali Sagar, on Upper part of Not known shattered broken off and
Nepal border shaft in two shaft mostly
fragments missing)
io. Rdmptirvd, Shaft and Lion 8 16. Vaiali Complete and Lion 4
pillar No. i capital still in situ
(capital now in complete, but
Calcutta now separated Today, there are only two shafts which can be
Museum) their whole length on the surface of the grou
both lying at Ramptirvd (Fig.9). The one n
i i. Rampiirva, Shaft and BullI camera is the uninscribed shaft of the bull-ca
pillar No.2 capital complete, Delhi (Fig.i); the other is the shaft of the lion
(capital now at but now in Calcutta Museum (Fig.8), inscribed wit
Delhi) separated first six edicts. The lengths of the shafts are
12. Rummindei, on Shaft and Not known12 (13"15 m.) and 44 ft. ioj ins. (13"68 m.) respec
are both monolithic, and both highly polished
Nepal border fragment of the lower ends (originally invisible below ground
'bell' of capital
left untrimmed (8 ft. or 2-43 m. and 8 ft. 9J in
respectively). As we shall show, out of the e
13. Sanchi More or less Quadruple 7 about which underground information is availab
complete but lions untrimmed bases with the single exception of
in fragments Gotihawa (Fig.I3) which, when excavated in I
reported to be highly polished its whole leng
14. Sankisa Capital only Elephant 6 been confirmed by recent excavations.'4
'High polish'5 and 'Chunar sandstone'16 a
commonly applied to the whole group of 'Abo
e For many years there has been a theory that the LauriyA-Ararij pillar had
been crowned with an image of thus
Garuda. This idea originated inevitably
with ALFRED reinforcing the idea of them
FOUCHER: Iconographie bouddhique, Paris [Igoo], pp.53-55, who cited as evi-
dence a late medieval palmleaf ms. in Cambridge University Library
illustrating a Garuda-pillar standing in front of a Stfipa located
13 PURNA at CHANDRA
'Radhya'. MUKHERJI: A report on a tour of exploration of t
Since there was a village of similar name two and a half miles the
from the Lauriyf-
Tarai, Nepal, during February and March, 8gg99, Archaeo
Araraij pillar, which at one time caused antiquarians to call India, New Imperial
it the 'Radia pillar' Series of Monographs, vol.XXVI, p
(vide A. CUNNINGHAM: Inscriptions of Aloka, Calcutta [1879],XVI (i) and
p.4o), XVII. too
Foucher
readily assumed that the pillar in the painting must be what 4 In 1962is now
a teamcalled
led by Mrs Debala Mitra of the Archaeological Survey o
India and since
the Lauriyi-Araraj pillar, depicted before decapitation. However, members Radiaof the Indian Co-operation Mission, in concert with the
or Radhya is a common Bengal place-name, the identification is not seriously
Archaeological Department of the Government of Nepal, excavated at Goti-
tenable and is perhaps safer ignored. hawa, but their report remains unpublished. The information has been con
veyedoriginally
12 The Chinese traveller Hsiian Tsang reported that this pillar to me by courtesy
had of Shri Krishna Deva, Archaeological Adviser with
the figure of a horse on top. However, the pillar had already the collapsed by the Mission at Kathmandu. The Gotihawa pillar is on
Indian Co-operation
time he visited the scene in 629 A.D. - a catastrophe he attributed to the con-
of those generally believed to have been erected by A ioka in commemoratio
trivance of a wicked dragon (SAMUEL BEAL: Buddhist records ofof hisWestern
the visit to the Buddhist holy sites in 249 B.C. It will be further discusse
World,
vol.II, London [19o6], p.25). Hsuan Tsang does not make clear whether he
presently.
saw the actual remains of a horse-sculpture fallen to the ground, or whether
15 The technique by which this lustrous finish was achieved is probably less of
a mystery thanattaching
he was recording local legend. Some interpreters of the inscription, popularly supposed. When samples of one of the Kumrahar
perhaps more credulity to the statement than circumstances justify,
roof-supporting pillarshave
(similar in finish to the most highly polished 'Aiokan'
votive of
sought confirmation of the horse-theory in their interpretation pillars)
thewas recently examined by Dr. B. B. Lal, an archaeological
obscure
and much-discussed word vigadabhf which occurs in line 3: chemist
silaworking
viga4abhfwith thecdArchaeological Survey of India, he reported that
'they do not
kalapita sild-thabhe ca usapapite. The case for 'horse' was stated atseem to carryby
length any coating or film and there is no foreign matter
whatsoever on the Indian
j. CHARPENTIER: 'A note on the Padariya or Rummindei inscription', smooth stone surface. The polish has been found to be due
Antiquary, vol.43 [19141, pp.17-2o. His argument is based to onthethe
effect of rubbing the stone with a hard stone powder or abrasive. The
conclusion
technique
that vigada is a shortening from vigadiva and means agaddiva, of preparing
'a broken steed,the highly polished stone surface evidently consisted
a thoroughbred', which he felt was an apt description of thein rubbing
horse theKanthaka,
surface with a suitable abrasive, such as carborundum or some
on which the Buddha-to-be rode forth from Kapalivastu. From the viewpoint
similar abrasive. Such highly polished surface can easily be prepared in the
of an art historian, and in light of everything known about Mauryan
laboratory.' These
art,remarks
I find are quoted from A. S. ALTEKAR: Report on Kumrahar
it difficult to accept that there was the figure of a horse on top. Modern
excavations, 1951-55, K. epi-
P. Jayaswal Research Institute, Patna [11959], p.139. It
graphists, from their own angle, seem to be sceptical about should
thenot inscription
be forgotten that hardstone-polishing was a highly-developed skill
containing any mention of a horse. E. HULTZSCH, in Inscriptionsin ancient India as weCorpus
of Aloka, know from the many finds of crystal sculpture. The word
Inscriptionum Indicarum, vol.I, Oxford [1925], p.x64, fn. 3, 'carborundum'
comments or 'corundum',
only now used all over the world, seems to be of
that the horse-theory 'remains to be proved by more substantial evidence'.
Indian origin. a. L. TURNER:InComparative dictionary of the Indo-Aryan languages,
our opinion, the most plausible interpretation is that advancedLondon by J.p.17
[1966], F.1,FLEET
traces it to Pili kuruvinda and Prakrit kuruvimda meaning
'ruby'.
in the Journal of Royal Asiatic Society [g19o8], pp.476-8, and by D.The
R.word seems to have reached the West through the Telegu or Tamil
Bhandarkar
in Epigraphia Indica, vol.XXII, 1938, pp.2oI-2, that sild vigadabhi means
variants, kuruvindam an (vide HENRY YULE and A. C. BURNELL: Hobson-
or kurundam
enclosing wall made of stone. K. R. NORMAN, Lecturer inJobson,
Prakrit and
a glossary of Pili,
colloquial Anglo-Indian words, London [190o3], P.259, s.v.
'corundum'.
University of Cambridge, tells me in correspondence that he too believes that
sila vigada probably means 'made of stone'. 26 Named after the Chunar quarries on the Ganges, near Banaras.
716
'ASOKAN' PILLARS: A REASSESSMENT OF THE EVIDENCE-II : STRUCTURE
gencous group commissioned from a single imperial Carlleylesource.

dug down to the foundations of this pillar in 1877,
The facts, however, are less uniform or consistent than he noted a different kind of projection, described in his own
generally realized.' For instance, 'high polish' is not an words as 'a narrow, rounded, projecting edge of stone en-
accurate description of the Vais5ii pillar (Fig.4), nor has circling the shaft and jutting out about two inches [5 cms.]'.-23
the stone of this particular pillar much resemblance to the It might be supposed that all these projections had the same
others. It is deep-rose in colour and lacks, for instance, the purpose - to facilitate haulage and erection of the shaft.2 It
marble-like quality of the Sdrndth pillar (the latter being a is not, of course, impossible that all 'Adokan' shafts had left
buff-grey with black specks). The Vais.li pillar is even the quarry with lugs or projections of some kind, and that in
reported to show signs of surface-flaking in places - a feature cases where they are not found they had been chiselled off
also noticed on certain parts of the more highly-polished after erection.25
Sankisd elephant-capital (Fig.6), which is also rose-coloured. The next feature of the shafts to be noted is the insignia
Sandstone, being a sedimentaryrock, usuallyoccurs in shallow which appear on the underside of Rdmpfirvd bull-pillar
beds. Although such beds are fairly numerous and widely shaft (Fig.E, left). They seem to be masons' codemarks - a
dispersed in northern India, the very high lustre of the
S~irn~ith pillar could not be achieved with any but the most
fine-grained and well-compacted sandstones which are very
rare. Can we be certain that the Vaidall and Strndth stones 00
originated from the same quarry? In the absence of expert

geological analysis, we prefer to see the question left open.18
o0
The facts concerning polish are also at variance. Some of
the pillars are highly polished throughout their whole
length; others, only in certain parts (for instance, where the
inscription is engraved, as if it had been the function of the
polisher to provide a special surface for the engraver). E. Insignia on the ba
pillar (right).
Some pillars survive with their polish in pristine condition
after more than 2000 years' exposure to a monsoon climate; 19
others have had their polish dulled by weathering.20 very simple type in common use among illiterate craftsmen
Besides the two Rtmptirvd shafts visible their whole length almost everywhere.26 Similar insignia appear on the base of
above ground today, there is a third shaft about which we one of the stone roof-supporting columns excavated at
have full information - the Allahtbdd shaft Kumrahar (Fig.E, right), site of the Mauryan capital,
(Fig.i 4). Before re-erection in 1838 this shaft Pdtaliputra.27 But in the case of the Kumrahar pillar there
was drawn and published by Prinsep,21 and are some more sophisticated insignia as well, including the
from this drawing we can see, not only that well-known 'hill-and-crescent' discussed in our first article
the lower section is untrimmed, but that un-
(see fn.i). We noted this motif on the copper dowel which
like the Rtmpiirvd shafts it had two short,secured the Rdmpiirvd lion-capital to its shaft. On account
square lugs or bosses near the base (Fig.D).
of its appearance on coins it has been described as a Mauryan
We know that the Gotihawa pillar had four and perhaps specifically Abokan symbol. On the other hand,
lugs of the same kind which have been re- none of the markings on the underside of the bull-shaft can
corded as 4 ft. 6 ins. above the base.22 As far
be positively identified as AMokan or even Mauryan. They
as other 'Abokan' shafts are concerned, we
are insignia of a very elementary kind which might have been
D. Base of the have no information except in the case of the
Allahabad shaft, used by craftsmen of any period.
showing lugs. one at Lauriyd-Nandangarh (Fig.5). When A further point to note about the underside of the Rtm-
pilrvt bull-shaft is the hole or depression in the centre. What
purpose could this have served? There is no such hollow on
"1 As I have not personally had the opportunity of visiting more than two of
the pillar-sites, I am dependent mainly on the reports of others in discussing
the stone and its appearance.
1s The only time a sample of stone pillar attributed to Adoka has been sub- graphs, vol.XXVI, Calcutta [IgoI], pp.31-32. These lugs are just visible in
mitted to a geological laboratory for analysis is in the case of the fragments of the rather poor drawing at Plate XVI, fig.2.
an inscribed shaft found at Amarivati. The conclusion was that it could not 23 A. C. L. CARLLEYLE: 'Report of operations during the season of 1877-78',
have originated from the Chunar quarries. Amarivati happens to be the Archaeological Survey Reports, vol.XXII, Calcutta [1885], P.47.
pillar-site most distant from the Ganges, so the conclusion is not surprising. 24 The practice of leaving lugs on large stone members to assist handling seems
19 For instance, the Lauriya-Nandangarh pillar was reported to me last year to have been common in the first millennium B.C. For archaic Greece, see
in a letter to be glistening in the sunlight as though polished yesterday. A. K. ORLANDOS: Les matiriaux de construction et la technique architecturale des anciens
20 A case in point here is the RimpfirvO lion-capital. As we shall presently Grecs, Part II, Paris [1968], p.89. For Achaemenid Persia, see MARCEL DIEULA-
show, when this pillar collapsed about 200ooo years ago, the capital broke in two: FOY: L'Art antique de la Perse, Part I, Paris [1884], pp.6-7. This very elementary
the lower part stayed fixed to the shaft just above surface level, and the upper practice could have been evolved by stonemasons anywhere and at any time,
part lay buried (see Fig.x x). The two parts of the capital are now re-joined in without necessarily having been borrowed.
Calcutta Museum; yet the contrast between the weathered and unweathered 2. In this connection, note the way similar lugs have been removed from the
surface is very conspicuous. This contrast was noted at the time of excavation Kumrahar shaft reproduced in Archaeological Survey of India, Annual Report,
(Archaeological Survey of India, Annual Report, T9o7-o8, p.x84. 1912-13, Plate XLVII (b). One of the 'scars' is clearly visible in the published
21 Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol.3 [1834]. Prinsep's drawing is repro- photograph.
duced with the first article of the present series (THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE, 2 For West Asian parallels, see MARCEL DIEULAFOY: L'Art antique de la Perse,
vol.CXV [November, 1973], Fig.3).- Part I, Paris [1884], pp.I1- 12.
22 PURNA CHANDRA MUKHERJI: Report on a tour of exploration of the antiquities in the 2' D. R. SPOONER: 'Mr Ratan Tata's excavations at Pitaliputra', Archaeological
Terai, Nepal, Archaeological Survey of India, New Imperial Series of Mono- Survey of India, Annual Report, 1912-13, p.69 and Plate XLVII (b).
717
'ASOKAN PILLARS : A REASSESSMENT OF THE EVIDENCE I-.' STRUJCTUJRE
Floor and
Foundahlon of
Floor ol pradokshnapatoaM
pradokshinopalho
lad
the odirecly
roundupon FoundaP1n-
flooriny
Floor oF prodak.nopatha eobuhw wh
md abovef
uponlevll/ed hMw 5(n10a of brick,,.and
iow pflofarm core of rubbl?
of (cabulra
-s
br& kwork
\~EE GROUND
LEE14~i4j LEVEL
rub cor Onr'r.w~i
proud ( ) . 4 oF bfl blow

F. The pradakshind-patha (processional pathway). LeftG. (type
The pradakshind-patha. Left (type iii), the brick masonry partly raised above
i), laid directly
ground to form
upon the ground. Right (type ii), the foundations consolidated a platform
with brick or cabutra. Right (type iv), the cabutra built with
masonry. retaining-walls of brick, and the centre infilled.
projections of one kind, some of another, and some have n

the underside of the lion-shaft lying beside it (Fig.9). We
do not know if such hollows occurred under the re-erected projections at all. Some bear insignia on their undersid
shafts because nothing was recorded on this point. Sinceothers
the do not. Some had their capitals dowelled one wa
hollow has no obvious practical function,28 one is boundsometo another, and so on. Yet if all the pillars had bee
produced
wonder if it was of ritual significance, and we shall return to by a single generation of craftsmen working
this question in a later context. the same quarry, one would expect consistency in t
treatment
Examining next the method of fixing capitals to shafts, we of shafts before any other component.
But
notice in most cases a recessed band at the top of the shaft having noted differences between the shafts, we sh
return
which allowed the lower part of the capital to overhang by once again to the features they all do have in comm
about two inches (5 cm.). (The recessed band is clearly One is their formal descent from the wooden pole or standa
The
seen at Fig.io.) Of the five which can be inspected (these second (discussed in the first article) is the way in whi
being the shafts at Sdnchi, Allahdbdd, Nigali Sdgar, they
andwere designed to stem straight up from the ground without an
two at Rdmpfi-rv), four have the same recessed band; but as if coming from the fundaments of the earth. The wo
plinth,
'plinth' we use in its proper sense: the lower member o
the fifth (the Allahabdd shaft) has no recession at all. There
is inconsistency, too, in the method of dowelling: in column
three integral with the design. It should not be assum
that 'Adokan' pillars stemmed out of the earth without an
out of four cases the dowel-holes are smooth, but in the fourth
kind of structural surround at ground level. Since, as w
(the Sdnchi shaft), the hole is grooved to take a screwlike
tenon. So every time, it seems, there is at least one odd-man- have shown, they were worshipped by the rite of circu
out! nambulation (pradakshind), this meant that there had to b
By the end of this scrutiny of 'Agokan' shafts (only fifteen some kind of prepared pathway (pradakshind-patha) round
of which survive out of an original total of more than fortyshaft, suitable to withstand constant tread of feet in wet
pillars mentioned in literary records), we are forced to con- well as dry seasons. This pathway, we shall see, constituted
clude that what had once been considered a homogeneous the sacred enclosure, demarcated by the special type
group of monuments are in fact extremely varied. Far from railing known as vedica, to be discussed in more detai
giving the impression of being uniform products of a single presently. Visiting the pillar sites in India today, nobody
workshop over a period of twenty-five years (as Vincent likely to be aware that the monuments were originall
Smith and others have claimed), we begin to see them as an without plinths. For proof, we have to find drawings
odd medley. Some are tall and elegant; others relatively paintings or photographs made more than ioo years ag
short and clumsy. Some are of one colour and texture of in other words, before these monuments received the atte
sandstone; some of another. Some are highly polished; some tion of conservationists.29 Where plinths or bases exist toda
are not. Some have the lower sections of their shafts un- we can be certain that they were added by conservationist
trimmed; one is polished right down to the base. Some have unaware that in so doing they were obscuring the essentia
meaning and symbolism of the pillars as Indian variants o
the axis mundi (a subject to which we shall return in the fin
28 It is not likely that the hole served any r6le in the method of traction. The
'garden-roller' method of traction discussed by Carl Nylander, reconstructing article). The only 'Agokan' pillar now surviving withou
'the machine of Chersiphron' described by Vitruvius (Architecture, Book modern
X) base is the topless shaft at Kosam (Fig.I 5), whi
in the context of Achaemenid architecture (CARaL NYLANDER: Ionians in Pasar-
gadae, University of Uppsala [197o01, P-57) would have been impractical for
monolithic pillars. 'The machine of Chersiphron' was built to transport29 Two good examples of how 'Agokan' pillars appeared before conservat
stones
for the columns of the archaic Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (c.550o B.C.) over
a short distance on flat ground; the method was possible only for the compara-are provided
garh by Lauriyd-Araraij
pillars. The early depictionspillar
of the
wasLauriy.-Araraj and Lauriyd-Nand
painted in water-colour by a cert
tively short drums making up dowelled columns. There is no reason toLieutenant think Harris in i8I8, and the original is preserved by the Royal Asia
that the technique used for transporting large monolithic pillars in ancient Society. At that time, of course, the author of the painting could have had n
India was different from that described for the removal of the Topra pillar notion
to of the origin of the monument; he saw it simply as an antique co
Delhi by Firoz Shah in 1367 A.D. (vide J. A. PAGE: 'A memoir on Kotla ponent
Firoz in a romantic landscape. The Lauriyi-Nandangarh pillar was dra
by Cunningham as he saw it in i86i and is published in Archaeological Sur
Shah', Memoirs ofthe Archaeological Survey of India, No.52, Delhi [19371, PP.33-4!2).
Wrapped in reeds and hides, the pillar was man-hauled upon a low Reports, multi- vol.I, plate XXV. It is interesting to compare Cunningham's draw
wheeled cart, a rope to each axle, and 2oo00 men to a rope; this particularwith the nineteenth-century photograph published with the first article in
pillar
was carried part of the way by boat on the River Jamuna. series (THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE, vol.CXV [November, 19731, fig.8).
718
cASOKAN' PILLARS: A REASSESSMENT OF THE EVIDENCE-II: STRUCTURE
because immediately
was re-erected in 1922 after lying partly collapsed below the surface was found the in-
and partly
buried since before the time of Akbar.30 scription discussed in the first article - Aoka's simple injunc-
Returning to the processional pathway and sacred en- tion to monks and nuns, threatening them with expulsion
closure round the pillars, we shall learn that there were four from the Buddhist order if they caused disunity in the ranks.
different forms (Figs.F and G). The simplest (Fig.F, No.i)
was a brick flooring more or less level with the surrounding Co.creo Floor
surface. No.ii consisted of four to six courses of brickwork :7Lcyers of roncrebe andkooka-
.INSCRIPTION ,.. 3F
(Floor of Me vorious cobutro.
no12** 03*'sed at 1,-s excovoaHo
set below ground-level as foundationing for a firmer and s one Pheen?
more lasting pathway without likelihood of subsidence.

PlofForms(cobobos
No.iii was built of five or six courses of brickwork and took (restored/)
the form of a platform or cabutra raised slightly above of voriousprods
surrounding ground-level, with the obvious advantage of
providing good drainage. No.iv is a platform or cabutra built
slightly above surrounding ground-level with only retaining
walls of brickwork, the central area being infilled with rubble 7, 9,SPLAN
or earth.31 Cabutras are common features of open-air shrines in
"7r
India today. The important point to stress in the pillar con- FOUCDAE TOAISTONE ConEf
lonye r s ide ,:.. .
text is that they never formed an organic part of the original oa2 A. 6 6
in Repork,) "I
architectural design. They were built after erection of the
pillar and only for a ritual purpose. At sites under continuous 0 1 3 on A -
SCALE FEET
worship over long periods, the cabutras were often rebuilt and
overlaid, so that they rose a little higher each time, corres-H. Excavation of Sfirnith Pillar: se
ponding with the rise of the surrounding occupation-level.
This brings us to our main enquiry in the context of this From the drawing at Fig.H,
article: what happened to the shafts of 'Abokan' pillars afterderived from two successiv
they disappeared below ground? And what light can thiswe can now re-trace the stag
broke through the modern c
information throw on the history of the pillars? It is a curious
fact that although much valuable data has been published indown 3 ft. (91 cm.) came to
scattered archaeological reports, it has never been collated sented by a pavement of sto
and explained. This is not as easy as it might sound, becausethis they reached original gr
although most of the pillar-sites have been explored to their with the junction between
foundations (some of them several times), the explorers have sections of the shaft. It was
in several stages over the
never known exactly what to look for, nor how to interpret
the often confusing evidence they came across. Moreover, worship. At a fairly high lev
each excavation destroyed part of the evidence for the nextmedieval surface the excavat
party, thus making an intelligible reconstruction progres- of what they at first called a
sively more difficult. It is only now, with hindsight, that weto 'remains of brick walls'.
are in a position to fit the evidence together into a coherentthat they were retaining wa
picture. the second type of platfor
The first pillar to be investigated down to its foundationsFig.G, right.) Embedded in w
under controlled archaeological conditions was the one at brick floor, they found, in the
Sarnath (Fig.2).32 Until this excavation took place in 1904, stone railing posts and tw
the pillar had been buried in fragments below ground, its rosettes'. These were descr
existence unknown. Only the top of the broken stump was not bearing any inscription
visible at modern surface-level, and this had not previously that they were part of th
attracted attention. Once investigated, however, its identi- cabutras, possibly of Kushd
fication as the stump of an 'Adokan' pillar was not in doubt,mately the level likely to h
century A.D.).
The description of a railing
30 The Kosam pillar is discussed more have
fully been
later inthe
this sacred
article. enclos
x31 One would expect the flooring of between the Buddha
the sacred enclosure ando
to have been
article.The
with a finer finish which has not survived. The dialogue
floor may haveappea
been c
with fine mud-plaster, which is sprinkled with water during the heat of t
Sarvdstivddin Vinayapitaka n
making a cool and fragrant surface for the bare feet. The laying of mud-
language.
floors is still a fine folk-craft in India; the floorsThe Buddha
are re-made was ask
seasonally.
is reason to think that, in later periods,
erectthe flooring of the
a lion-pillar in pradakshin
front o
paved or tiled. No trace of tiling has survived in the pradakshinapathas
'Asokan' pillars; but an early elliptical temple-site which may be Maur
3 F. 0. OERTEL, op. cit., p.6g. These f
upon tiled flooring laid upon prepared earth (M. D. KHARE: 'Discovery
Museum, but unfortunately they ca
Vishnu temple
New Delhi near the Heliodorus descriptions
[1967]). Pillar, Besnagar District',
in the museum Lalit Kala
catalogu
posts, coping stones and crossbars' a
.32 F. O. OERTEL: 'Excavations at Sirn5th', Archaeological Survey of India, A
Catalogue of the a luseum of Archaeol
Report, 1901-5, pp.68-70o; and j. H. MARSHALL and s. KONOW: 'Sirnlith
for i906-07, pp.68-7 1. If the fragments could be identifi
dated, thus giving the date of the cab
719
its re-erection
minentary question, whether it would be permitted 'tobeside
erectthe a
mosque in his fort at Delhi, where it
railing round the pillar?' The significance of known
became the second
as Minarak-i-7'arrin (literally, 'the Golden
question is apparent only when we recognize
Pillar'). In'railing' as of its dismantlement at Topra,
the description
meaning vedica. Coomaraswamy aptly described thethat
we are told vedica
under as
the shaft was found 'a square slab of
the 'characteristic and almost essential feature' of the sacred
stone', which was dug out and'brought to Delhi to be placed
shrine in ancient India.34 It was the railing used to mark off
again under the shaft on its re-erection.38
the sacred from the profane area round a holy spot. So the There are two separate reasons for thinking that the Topra
question addressed to the Buddha was tantamount to asking: pillar was among the last to be founded by Agoka. On the
'Would it be permitted to worship the pillar as a sacred one hand, its inscription includes the famous seventh edict
shrine independently of the Stilpa?' The Buddha, it will notbe found on any other pillar; on the other, its calligraphy
recalled, assented passively to the first two questions, butrepresents a stage of development more advanced than that
declined to answer the third - whether this would be 'a goodseen on any other pillar.
thing to do?' For us, then, the discovery of the remains of aThe third Method 'A' pillar is the one at Gotihawa in the
railing at Sarndth, and its identification as a vedica, isNepal Tarai, near the Buddha's birthplace (Fig.I3).37 It
important. survives only as a stump, and on the evidence available we
Continuing excavation beyond original ground-level cannot exclude the possibility that at some stage it has been
(which corresponded approximately with the junction re-erected. However, its position in front of the ruins of an
between the polished and untrimmed sections of the shaft), ancient tumulus (guessed to be a Stiipa) seems to have been
the excavators finally reached the base and found it resting, the original one. Neither tumulus nor stump bear any posi-
unfixed, on a plain slab of sandstone measuring 8 ft. X 6 ft. tive identification.38 When investigated by Mukherji and
X I ft. 8 ins. (2-43 m. X I-82 m. X 43 cms.). Waddell in I899, the small portion of the pillar-stump
Out of a total of nine 'Agokan' pillars so far explored to visible above ground was under worship as a phallus.
their foundations, five are known to have been erected by Waddell dug down to a depth of ten feet (3 m.) and found
this method, which we shall call that the shaft was polished its whole length (as earlier
Method 'A' (Fig.I). In four stated). It rested upon a placement stone measuring 7 ft. X
out of these five cases, there is 5ft. 81 ins. x io ins. (2-13 m. by 1I7 m. by 25 cm.); the
(as we shall presently see) some shaft was not, however, placed centrally on the stone.39 In
independent, corroborative evi- the nearby village of Gutiva (alias Gotihawa), three frag-
dence that they were erected by ments of the same pillar were found. Two of them (which
we may suppose were fragments of shaft) are not described
GROUND . .. .. Aoka. We included
shall also learn that
LEVEL
among
in the report, them
but the third was a portion of the 'bell' of the
capital.40 These facts leave no reason to doubt that Gotihawa
sof saft ,eon
erected in
earliest
AMoka's reign
The second Method 'A
FOUNDATION is the one originally at Topra, 36 The placement-stone and its actual setting under the shaft is illustrated in
5T "NEL now re-erected as a topless shaft
a late sixteenth-century copy of the Sirat-i-Firozshahi now in the Oriental
' in the fort known as Kotla Public Library, Bankipore, Patna, reproduced by J. A. PAGE, op. Cit., fig.I.
Like all other illustrations of the dismantlement, transport and re-erection of
VIRG/N SOIL Firoz Shah at Delhi. This shaft
the pillar appearing in this copy of the fourteenth-century manuscript, the
I. Foundation Method 'A'. had been dismantled
drawing is purely and trans-
conventional, and is presumably based on a fourteenth-
century original.
ported to its present site ioo miles away at the personal
37As far as archaeological operations in the Nepal Terai are concerned, a
initiative of Sultan Firoz Shah in A.D. I367.35 A con- comic-opera situation seems to have prevailed in the late nineteenth century,
temporary manuscript, the Sirat-i-Firozshahi describes the with at least three separate parties digging simultaneously, without co-ordina-
Sultan's discovery of the pillar at the village of Topra tion, and hardly on speaking terms with one another. As a result, much damage
was done to the sites with little result of positive scientific value. The best
while touring his domains, and his personal supervision of report is that Of PURNA CHANDRA MUKHERJI: 'A report on a tour of exploration
of the antiquities in the Tarai, Nepal,' Archaeological Survey of India, New Imprrial
Series of Monographs, No.XXVI, Calcutta [g19o]. But Mukherji was relatively
late on the scene, digging some of the pillar-sites for the third time, and finding
that earlier reports were incomplete and inaccurate (in this connection, see
VINCENT sMrrITH's Introduction to Mukherji's monograph cited above).
34 A. K. COOMARASWAMY: Taksas, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, vol.I
" When the tumulus was opened by Waddell in 1899, no relic-casket was
found (it is possible, of course, that there had been one and that it had been
[1928], p.22.
robbed). There were, however, a large number of bone-fragments buried in it
35 j. A. PAGE: 'A memoir on Kotla Firoz Shah, Delhi', Memoirs of the Archaeo-
which did not appear to be human, and numerous teeth which were certainly
logical Survey of India, vol.52, Delhi [19371. Sultan Firoz Shah (A.D. 1351-1388)
animal. In the centre of the mound was a hole, about six inches in diameter,
belonged to the house of Tughlaq and was a nephew of Sultan Ghyas-ud-din
which had once accommodated a central post or pillar. This pillar apparently
Tughlaq. His father, Sipah Salar Rajab, had for political reasons married
the daughter of a Hindu ruler, Rajput Raja Mal Bhatti of Delapur. When penetrated the whole mound and constituted its axis (MUKHERJI, op. cit., p.32).
39 MUKHERJI, op. cit., p.3I, describes the stone slab as being of granite. But since
Firoz Shah was aged seven his father died, and together with his mother he
was taken into personal care by the ruling uncle, whom Firoz Shah ultimately all other recorded placement-stones of 'Asokan' pillars are of sandstone, this
succeeded. Although a practising Muslim, Firoz Shah's religious temperament description should perhaps be regarded with caution.
40 The fragments were known locally as gutis, 'broken pieces', which gave the
seems to have owed something to his Hindu ancestry, which would explain his
fascination with the Topra pillar and his personal initiative in supervising its place-name Gutiva, alias Gotihawa. Lori Ahir, a local legendary giant-deity
whose adventures are linked with many of the ancient mounds (dihs) in the
re-erection on a specially-built pyramidal shrine immediately adjoining the
mosque in his fort at Delhi, as described in the Sirat-i-Firozshahi. In spite of Nepalese Tarai, is said to have played with the gutis by tossing and catching
them in his hands (MUKHERJI, op. cit., p.32). A receat photograph of the capital-
being a Muslim, his attitude to the pillar was clearly tinged with religious awe.
The manuscript even records local Hindu belief that the pillar 'had grown out fragment shows it badly corroded, suggesting application of red-lead paste by
of the bowels of the earth and reached the heavens'. worshippers over a long period.
720
'ASOKAN' PILLARS: A REASSESSMENT OF THE EVIDENCE-II: STRUCTURE
was the original location of the pillar. However,

this particular Mukherji
case - alone among the five Method 'A'
mentions that the placement stone pillars restedwe areon 'brick- there
considering mason- is no independent evidence
ry', 41without describing the size of the bricks
of AMokan orthe
origin, so for style
moment ofwe shall leave open the
construction. This does not sound likeasato Mauryan
question whether AMoka founda-
erected it or whether the pillar
tion, and bearing in mind also that the was already
shaft standing
was when
notitproperly
was engraved with his edicts.
centred on the placement stone, we cannot
The fifth exclude
Method 'A' pillar is thethe
only one known to have
possibility that this shaft-stumpcollapsed had at at itssome stage
foundations, been
and the reason for this collapse
re-erected. is very relevant to the story. According to the calculations of a
Following recent excavations at the site, some archaeolo- modern structural engineer, Method'A'is an adequate means
gists think that two shaft-fragments found at Nigdli SAgar,42 of founding a stone pillar weighing up to fifty tons (5,000
about thirteen miles (20-8 km.) from Gotihawa, might kilos) provided the subsoil is firm.46 Without a firm subsoil,
originally have formed the upper part of the Gotihawa pillars erected by this method would be vulnerable to
pillar. One of the fragments is inscribed by Aboka and re- crosswinds of gale force. These would have the effect of trans-
cords that the pillar to which it belonged stood before a ferring lateral pressure to the base and making the place-
Stilpa dedicated to the former Buddha Kandkamuni. Hsiiran ment stone tip at the weakest point of resistance (inevitably
Tsang, who visited the Kandkamuni Stipa in the seventh one of the corners). At Sdrntth and Lauriyd Nandangarh
century A.D., records that in front of it stood 'a stone pillar the subsoils must have been sufficiently firm. (In the former
with a lion on top.., erected by AMoka.'43 Whatever credence case, not only did the pillar stay plumb for at least 15oo
we attach to the putative identification of the Nigali Sagar years, but when force strong enough to break the shaft was
shaft-fragments with the Gotihawa pillar, it is reasonable to exerted against it, the foundations remained intact.)47 But
suppose that the latter was one of the group of pillars AMoka our fifth Method 'A' pillar - the lion-pillar at Rdmpiirvi
erected in commemoration of his pilgrimage to the Buddhist
SOUTH BELL and NORTH
holy sites in this outlying area in 249 B.c. It is this pillar, A BACUS,
movod by
moreover, which recent excavation proved to be polished LION, Corr,/cdC
right down to its base, like the roof-supporting pillars of the Oround discovere /880-"81
so-called audience-hall at Kumrahar."44 s/opeos.,hlly 07n19o7-o8
The fourth Method 'A' pillar is the lion-pillar which still
stands more or less intact at Lauriyv-Nandangarh (Fig.5). EARTH
In 1877, Carlleyle dug down to the foundations and re-

ported that the shaft was resting on a 'stone platform' Anc. so an xavalion of1877-78 qpoicksooondw v bOof
,,,/ic//ow w... ca - (Corilyle) wi/h

measuring about 7 ft. X 7 ft. (2-13 m. X 2"13 m.). 45But in
well-Excavaokio-
FOUNDATION
J. Eptior
&CA
(Upper-eoe Me
only are
hy
Bose
). si?2 1 (Sohni) en/ireo7-o8
o of silt
41 MUKHERJI, op. cit., p.31.

" The NigAli Sigar pillar-fragments
Excavabions of were discove
/877-78
1897-98, and were re-investigated
hal/ed and
by S5r(13h 1907-08
darrmet;,n
springs
by Lower eolocoic/lskrala
nr i:
Mukherji
not eoomxnod
in x
two fragments, which bearsof waker near Me/ bas e
of the
'he pillar Asokan inscription
the western side of a high bank surrounding an anc
The larger fragment, which formed the upper part o
SCALE FEigT
inscriptions and three curious medieval symbols of bi
the bank nearby, the latter j. Excavation
having been of Rimpfirv
rebuilt at s
are numerous ancient ruins in this district, nothing i
of the tank suggested this was the location
(Figs.8, 10 and ofithei) -s
tioned in the Asokan inscription. When this inscrib
the shaft was investigated could
by Mukherji happen on a we
and Waddell i
in 1877,48
found to be irregularly fractured, andthis pillar
clearly not
degrees
various speculations as to the place ofto theof
origin groun
these
are clearly from one of the pillars erected by Asoka
visit to the Buddhist holy the sites lower in 249 part
B.c.;was
the st
in
about this. But no theory as has shown
yet been in the draw
proved. Muk
gations, op. cit., pp.3o-3i. FiUhrer's account, discus
lying
the Introduction to Mukherji's buried 2.13
monograph, is notm. re
3 T. WATTERS:
until travels
thirty
On
years l
Yuan
in India, Roy Chwang's
vol.II [x9o5], and extended to the
p.6.
** 4D. R. SPOONER: 'Mr. Ratan ment Tata's
stoneexcavations
tipped at on
Survey of India, Annual Report, 19.12--13, plate
nearby (Fig. i o).49
pillar-fragments, being parts of roof-supporting colum
T
working
of votive pillars, but it is of interest todown from
note that they
ing of Sal wood. In this connection, see D. R. SPOON
ALTEKAR and v. MISHRA: Report
46 I amon Kumrahar
indebted Excavat
to Mr D
K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute, Patna
tural engineer [1959], PP
specialising i
5 A. C. L. CARLLEYLE: 'Report
helpfulon operations
technical during
guidance o
Archaeological Survey Reports,
pillars vol.XXII, Calcutta
and the likely [1
reason
of the placement stone are estimated.
' The Carlleyle
circumstances of say
the
'two feet beyond the pillar on all four sides' but he do
certain, but Islamic iconoc
of the shaft at base. At modern ground-level
established the d
in this region
(90 cms.); and from this we wouldmonuments
religious expect diameter
in the
1o0 cms. Carlleyle adds the information
48 that the oute
A. C. L. CARLLEYLE: 'Dis
stone were pegged with stakes of Sil timber. This se
Survey Reports, vol.XXII, C
practice. Wooden stakes were found at S5rnfith,
4 DAYA RAM SAHNI: 'Excav and
at Rimpfirva.
Annual Report, i9o7-o8, C
721
distinct soil strata: topsoil, sand, topsoil,

cussed and
in the again sand.
first article, is likely to have ceased to be
more than legend,
This brought them to the original surface-level, where which may partly explain why the site
they
found the remains of a six-course brick was never rehabilitated.
floor, about two feet
This brings
deep, which extended on all sides of the pillar. our total of Method 'A' pillars to five. All of
Underneath
this brick floor they noted a stratum themof 'sand mixed all
are lion-pillars; with
have AMoka's edicts engraved o
their This,
clay', and below this, 'quicksand with clay'. shafts. In
offour out of five cases there is independent
course,
corroborative
is the worst imaginable subsoil for a stone pillar ofevidence (of varying cogency) to suggest tha
any kind,
theyheaviest
and this one happens to be the largest and were erected ofbythose
AMoka; and they include pillars know
we are considering. to have been among the earliest and the latest he erecte
From this information, we can now We can therefore conclude
reconstruct exactly with some confidence that
Method
what happened to this pillar from the time it 'A'
waswas established practice for the foundati
erected,
and our own drawing at Fig. J, which is stone
heavy based on during
pillars the AMoka's reign.
1907-08 report, will make the sequence easyHowever, as we shall now learn, not all pillars tradi
to follow.
ally called 'Abokan' were erected by this method. So
First, a hole about eleven feet (3"34 m.) deep was dug,
exposing what the archaeological report them have sunk
describes drastically into the subsoil in a way
as 'quick-
sand with clay'. The placement stone5o would
wasbethen
inconceivable
lowered if they had had placement st
into position and pegged at the corners with a surface
with area of
stakes offifty
Sdl square feet (4.6 sq.m.) or m
timber, presumably in the hope of stopping as at Sdrndth,
lateralTopra, Gotihawa, Lauriyv-Nandangarh
move-
Rdmpirvy.
ment. After insertion of the shaft, the hole was then(pillar No.i). Clearly, pillars which sank v
backfilled
to a depth of about seven feet (2- 13 m.), cally must
and have
aroundhad foundations
the which were techn
shaft was constructed a six-course brickinadequate
floor. (The- suggesting,
vedica- perhaps, an earlier stage of
railing enclosing the processional pathand orerror in the
sacred erection
area must of stone pillars. It is therefore
in this case have been made of wood because no traces of crucial importance to study whatever evidence is ava
about the way this second group of pillars was founded
survive.) Then came the test. At some date, probably
within a century or two of erection, there must have been Extraordinary though it may seem, the evidence sugg
a big storm. Either crosswind or the swelling of the not merely that the underpinning of these pillars w
quick-
sand-subsoil under flood conditions - or a combination of adequate, but that in some cases they were not underpi
both - caused the pillar to move out of plumb. This concen- at all. This would mean that more than forty tons (4,00
trated the weight on one narrow segment of the base-peri- kilos) of stone were thrusting down upon a narrow perim
meter of the shaft51 causing the placement stone to tip. of virgin subsoil! It stands to reason that any stone
From that moment catastrophe was inevitable,52 and in the erected by this method in sedimentary subsoil wou
final collapse the capital must have struck some object likely to sink. Founded in the wettest clay subsoils o
(perhaps a tree or a building) in its line of fall, causing it to Ganges basin, it might be expected to behave in one of
break in the middle.53 ways: either the pillar would have sunk vertically unde
So much then for cause of collapse. The next question is, own weight, until enough topweight had been transf
when did it happen? The answer is clearly embodied in the below ground to give it fresh stability; or, before it ha
soil-strata which has formed above original ground-level: a time to sink sufficiently, it would have been pulled
neat double-decker sandwich composed of two layers of plumb by crosswind or by disequilibrium of the crow
sand, and two of topsoil. In each case, the sand represents sculpture. In very weak subsoils, the first result was m
flood sediment, so we can see that there must have been two likely than the second, with the ironical outcome th
major floods, each followed by a long interval when two or pillars which sank most drastically would be the ones m
more feet of topsoil was formed. The first flood seems to have likely to survive upright. On firmer subsoils, the pillars
coincided with the collapse of the pillar, because the lion be more vulnerable to heeling and eventually to tota
was found in sand at brick-floor level-in other words, before lapse. The latter tendency must have been aggravate
topsoil had had time to form. In light of all these facts, it looks the fact that the Indians, unlike the Egyptians and
as though this pillar had collapsed and the site been aban- Greeks, did not always design
doned before the end of the first millennium B.C. - and their capitals with the same
attention to even distribution
possibly within a century or so of erection. Already by that
time the Uttaripatha or great northern trade route, dis- of weight above the centre of
the shaft, with the result that
some of the monuments were
with this report are not complete; our own drawings at Fig.J collate all erected with initial disequi- CRou
information embodied in the text. librium. (This is rather more LEVEL'
50 Only one side of the placement stone was uncovered by the excavation. It obvious in the cases of the
measured 7 ft. 9 ins. (2-36 m.) in length, and i ft. g ins. (0-53 m.) in depth.
51 The point at which the base-perimeter of the shaft crumbled under pressure
bull- and elephant-capitals,
is clearly visible in the photograph at Fig.9.
52 If flooding is postulated as the main cause of collapse, it still has to be which are carved in native Unh;-,,e,edporok
Indian style, than in those of of shaft be/ow qround
recognized that the main activation was underground, not on the surface,
because the pillar fell in a direction counter to the local waterflow. the lion-capitals, which are in
53 The lion was found exactly where it might be expected to have fallen; but cosmopolitan, heraldic style.) FUNDoA vN To VNE
since it would probably have ended its fall on its side, yet was upright when
excavated, we would suppose that at some stage subsequent to its fall it had
been set upright by human agency. dingThe second
'Abokan' method
pillars we shallof
K. found- B Method
Foundation sohose,,
'B'. won/oged.
722
CASOKAN PILLARS :A REASSESSMENT OF THE EtVIDENCIf-II : STRUCTURE
postulate as Method 'B' (Fig.K). The best documented moment the pillar began to subside.' This is a very clear
example is the topless shaft at Kosam (Fig.15), re-erected in
description of our hypothetical Method 'B'. But if he was
1922. This is an uninscribed pillar without any known correct in describing the method of foundation,57 was he
Abokan association. When first reported in I862, it was also correct in his implication that all other 'Abokan' pillars
described by Cunningham as leaning at an angle of fifty were erected on 'strong stone slabs'? The facts do not support
degrees to the ground.54 An inscription of Akbar's reign him in this, as he might have recognised if he had paused at
engraved on the shaft, parallel with the ground, proved to this moment to reflect on his earlier experiences at
Cunningham that it had been lying at this angle at least Rdmpflirv.
since the sixteenth century. He was told by people in the
This time we refer to the second of the two Rrmptirvd
locality that within living memory the shaft was complete, pillars which, like the Kosam pillar, was uninscribed. It was
and that the upper part had been lodged in the branches of crowned with the famous bull-capital now at Delhi (Fig.i).
a nfm tree (one of the sacred trees of India, closely associated The existence of this sculpture was not known until 1907;
in folk-cults with the Pipal or asvattha tree). This tree had but thirty years earlier, when Carlleyle was excavating the
been accidentally burnt down by shepherds, whence the top Rdmpfirv~i lion-pillar, he noticed only 300oo yards to the south
of the shaft had been split by the heat of the fire. This is an 'two very ancient tumuli'. Between the tumuli was 'the
interesting detail of information, because it suggests that the shattered stump of a stone pillar of some kind, standing e
shaft (and perhaps also the capital) had been intact when it
in the ground about six feet [1i83 m.] high.'58 He did
fell out of plumb, and that natural forces rather than publish any drawing, but from information subsequen
vandalism had been the cause. Unfortunately, Cunningham gained we can reconstruct exactly how the stump appe
could not spare time for a full excavation and gave up after
he had penetrated to a depth of 7 ft. 4 ins. (2"24 m.) without
reaching the junction between the polished and untrimmed
sections of the shaft. We suspect that Cunningham's progress
was halted by one of the layers of ancient brick masonry we
now know that he would have reached. He left the task of IT,
fuller excavation to a certain Mr Nesbitt, District Engineer, r ? -I b
who, in 1870, persevered through the obstructing brickwork

and exposed a total shaft-length of 34 ft. (i0-4 m.). Nesbitt .4n
did not publish a report,55 but comparison with the 1922

excavation shows he must have reached the beginning of the
Al
untrimmed section of the shaft. At this point he probably

ceased work for fear that the leaning pillar might collapse.
In progressing thus far, it is obvious that Nesbitt must have
considerably disturbed the evidence of the intervening levels.
L. The stump of the RimpfirvA Bull-pillar as
In 1922, this pillar was not only re-excavated but also located between tumuli. Reconstruction by
re-erected by the Archaeological Survey of India under
Daya Ram Sahni. His report, although extremely cursory, in 1877 (Fig.L). Busy with the lion
nevertheless embodies some important information.56 He sickness, Carlleyle paid no further
noted much brickwork which he interpreted as the remains But in 1907, after completing work
Ram Sahni turned his attention to the second site.59 This
of 'walls of rooms'. These 'walls' are more likely to have been
time excavation was more difficult because of the even more
the retaining walls of one or more cabutras of the type illus-.
trated at Fig.G (right), and which remind us of the 'remains
5 As the base of the pillar is now encased in concrete, it is never likely to be
of brick walls' described and not properly understoodpossible
at to obtain further evidence than that provided by Sahni, which is
Sdrnath. Sahni also noted that a long splinter had fractured disappointingly incomplete. A check of his measurements shows that he un-
covered only i ft. 9 ins. (53 cm.) of untrimmed shaft before reaching what he
from the lower part of the shaft. The most important ob-reports as the base of the pillar, embedded in the broken cabutra. It should
servation made by Sahni in this very summary report is the further be noted that Sahni could expose only the northern (raised) edge of
one which follows. 'What strikes one as so surprising about the tilted shaft-bottom, since he had to leave sufficient firm earth under the
lower part of the shaft to prevent it collapsing, and to ensure sound basing for
this pillar,' he wrote, 'is the kaccha [literally, "half-baked"]
the lifting-tackle to be installed. In I870, Nesbitt, who had uncovered only
nature of its foundations - clearly the cause of its downfallsix- inches (02-7 cm.) less of the shaft than Sahni, estimated the total length at
for whereas other Adokan pillars were erected on strong forty feet (12-2 m.). In making this calculation, Nesbitt had allowed the normal
average of between six and eight feet (I-8 and 2-4 m.) for the length of the
stone slabs, this one was set up direct on soil, with only a
untrimmed section. This would have been a reasonable proportion for under-
thin brick platform around it, which was bound to give the
ground anchorage, and in light of everything we now know about the founda-
tions of 'Aokan' pillars, Nesbitt's estimate seems about right. So while we have
nevertheless to accept Sahni's report as the only formal report available, we
must allow for the possibility that what Sahni thought was the bottom of the
SArchaeological Survey of India Reports, vol.I [1871], p.309. The report says that shaft was in fact a horizontal breakage, and that the shaft had broken under
the shaft was leaning at an angle of five degrees, but this is clearly a misprint strain immediately below the cabutra.
for fifty.
58 A. C. L. CARLLEYLE, Archaeological Survey of India Reports, vol.XXII, published
" Nesbitt's excavation is mentioned in a footnote added by Cunningham to
in 1885 (reporting for the year 1877), p.-53.
his own report just before publication (Archaeological Survey of India Reports, 5 DAYA RAM SAHNI: 'Excavations at Rampfirva', Archaeological Survey of India,
vol.I [1871], p.309).
Annual Report, 9go7-o8, pp.I85-88. The drawings of the draughtsman-photo-
56 Archaeological Survey of India, Annual Report, i9g2-22. The report on the re- grapher at Plate LXV are somewhat inaccurate, and inconsistent with the text.
erection of the Kosam pillar appears under the general headings 'Conserva-
We have therefore provided our own drawings at Figs.M and N which strictly
tion', p.9, and 'Exploration', p.45. follow the text.
723
ASOKAN PILLAkRS: A REASSESSMENT OF THE EVIDENCE-II: STRUCTURE
EAST
WEST .STUMP oF BULL CAPITAL EAST
Explorokory trenches ib Or;s of icrer BULL CAPITAL, PILLAR Found fto.he north
h scorch For Capdfol/ brick floor --excovoeon-
found whenFrenchnorlh w/ll of mo;n
collopsed
~oF moh' Ifrench
STWO PIECES of SHAFT
BRICK PLATFORM scOckPEon brick Floor
BR ICK FLOOR beside ploForm
STUMP OF
BRI/CK FLOOR vi
BRICK PLATFORM - f..
W~ooteesre ed
Mehkn Trench Grodund Solsnotwlm
Waler /h oed here 01'brs of Ir er
spo18oone b" .CA Floor
Plotform repoired
wismaller brick',
of Iiar period - TWO PIECES of SHAFT
slocked on brick Floor oF Pir-lla .'
6eside ploatform
ExTsMenceof Loaerq ea9i0'019
Foundaoo Stona Snot onem e
notl knlown
Deeperbrick
tlrouh excovhion
pl/cForm
lo search For base
of Pillar
a io 00 o30 40
SCALE
N. Excavation of Rampfirv Bull-pillar (section).

Exploracory
Fo search TorFrench
Copilol,.9s-~0
Al0 3 40
SCALE PLOT
M. Excavation of RAmpfirvi Bull-pillar (plan). vertical when the shaft is upright.) What actually precipi
tated the split? If there had been a fault in the stone in the
waterlogged nature of the subsoil Fig. 12; but after digging first place, the split could have been caused simply by
down sevenfeet (2- 1 3m.), he came to the original surface-levelweight-stress, accelerated perhaps by constant wetting and
and to the remains of a brick platform we now recognize as drying out under monsoon conditions. But if there had been
a cabutra (Figs.M and N). In this case, the cabutra seems tono fault, the most likely cause would have been lightning
have been raised about two feet above surrounding ground- Striking a pillar absorbed with moisture, lightning would
level (also paved with bricks). The upper parts of the brokenin a fraction of a second, turn the moisture into steam and
shaft he found lying horizontally on the original brick sur- in most cases cause a split in the bedplane of even a well
face; and a few feet further off, the famous bull-capital,compacted sandstone. If in fact the collapse occurred in a
exactly where it would have been expected to fall when the storm, it might well have been the same storm which
pillar collapsed.60 brought down the lion pillar (but for different technica
With the primitive pumping equipment available, it wasreasons). 62
not possible to penetrate more than three feet below the So far we have classified seven pillars according to their
under-surface of the brick platform or cabutra. At that depthfoundations. Five of them are Method 'A' - all lion-pillars
the excavators had not even reached the junction betweenall inscribed, and four of them with some independent
the polished and untrimmed sections of the shaft. Theyevidence of Aiokan association. Two of the others we have
did not realise that the shaft had in fact sunk as much as nine
postulated as Method 'B' - neither of them known to have
feet below its original level.6' We can now recognize that this been lion-pillars, neither inscribed, neither with any known
degree of sinkage would have been inconceivable if there Agokan association. The Method 'B' pillar with its capital
had been a placement stone underneath, remembering that intact has a bull on top, carved in a style we have recog-
the larger and heavier lion-pillar erected nearby in similar nized in the previous article as being in the native Indian
conditions had not sunk at all. We can make one more
tradition of animal art, distinct from the heraldic, cosmo-
inference: it was precisely because of rapid sinkage that the
politan style of the lion capitals. Is it possible that all pillars
bull-pillar stayed plumb, immune to the forces which with their animals carved in naturalistic style were un-
heeled over the lion-pillar. So we are now left with the
inscribed, and all Method 'B'? At this point, our minds
final question: why and when did the upper part of theinstinctively turn to the Sankisa elephant-pillar (Fig.6),
bull-pillar collapse?
In his report, Daya Ram Sahni suggested that the shaft
had been broken by the impact of some heavy floating object
hitting it in a flood. This, however, is not scientifically
*6 Miss Margaret Hall, in preparing the drawings of the RAmpfirvA excava-
tions, and after close study of all the published evidence, has offered the follow-
plausible. If averticalshaftis struck atright angles, asimple law
ing independent comment. 'The Nepal Tarai is the belt of flat country just
of physics tells us what kind of fracture would result: it would
below the foothills of the Himalayas, crossed by numerous mountain streams
be a fracture at forty-five degrees to the strike. In this case,
which flow north to south. In the hot season the melting snows of the Himilayas
swell the streams and the underground springs. The monsoon is preceded by
however, the fracture is in the form of two long splinters,
gales and thunder, and when rains break heavy floods may occur. Water-
indicating a split down the bedplane. (Since sandstone courses
is a may change as the floods subside, as silting is often very heavy; old
sedimentary rock, the bedplane is bound to be more or less
watercourses may dry out leaving bogs at places where floodwater has ac-
cumulated. It is in these conditions that the two Rampirvat pillars appear to
have collapsed. There is no doubt that both the lion and the bull capitals, and
the
60o Since the bull-capital was found in upright position and not on its side (as it broken pieces of the shaft of the bull-pillar, were placed tidily by human
must have been after falling), we must assume that at some stage it hands
was in the position in which they were found; but there is no evidence o
righted by human agency, as in the cases of the Rimpfirvi lion and the occupation in the layer of flood-silt lying immediately over the brick flooring
SankisA elephant (to be discussed presently). The latter was worshippedwhere
on the fallen pillars were left. It appears, therefore, that the pillars fell in
the ground as a cult-object until modern times. Both Rimpfirvi animals were gales preceding the monsoon; that the site was tidied by the local people, but
that it was flooded a few weeks later when the full force of monsoon waters
found standing upright at the level of the original brick paving round the
monument, and were therefore both obviously righted soon after the fall accumulated.
(see It should be noted that there are underground springs near the
footnotes 53 and 62). site of both pillars, which contributed to the waterlogging and made excavation
exceedingly difficult; these conditions are clearly visible in the photograph o
"x The shaft was not extracted and laid on the surface, as we see it today, until
many years later. the excavation of the bull-pillar (the southernmost of the two) at Fig.12.'
724
'ASOKAN' PILLARS : A REASSESSMENT OF THE EVIDENCE-II : STRUCTURE
which is not known to have been inscribed or to have had 1862 he had admitted that 'we have but little
any other association with Aloka. Could this be a Method our attempt to identify the holy places',67 and
'B' pillar? had identified the site of the monastery with
Sankisa (ancient Sdmkdsya) is the site of the miraculous which the modern village now stands, which is at least
staircase which, according to legend, the Buddha descended twenty-five yards from the site of the elephant-pillar.68 In a
from the Heaven of the Thirty-three Gods, accompanied by recent unpublished lecture, Dr F. R. Allchin commented
Indra and Brahmt. The elephant-capital was found by that Sankisd is 'the least well-known of all the great places
Cunningham in I862, partly sunk into the ground and associated with the Buddha',69 and in the circumstances we
without trace of shaft. Cunningham described it as 'by far are left without a shred of evidence that the elephant-pillar
the best representation of an elephant that I have seen in was a Buddhist monument or associated with any event in
Indian sculpture,'63 and he assumed (too hastily, as we the Buddha's life. We prefer to leave open the possibility
shall show) that this pillar must have been erected by Aboka that Cunningham's calculation of A.D. 750 as the date of its
to mark the site of the miraculous staircase. Fourteen years fall was an under-estimate, and that it may have already
later he returned to Sankisd with the express purpose of collapsed before the Chinese medieval travellers reached
discovering the remains 'of the great Adokan pillar, of which Sankisa. Remembering also Hstian Tsang's observation that
only the elephant-capital now exists above ground.'64 From 'many tens-of-thousands' of Brahmins dwelt at Sankisa and
the position of the capital, he calculated where the original supported their own shrines (including the famous serpent-
foundations of the pillar were likely to have been, and temple and tank dedicated to Karewar Naga), we would also
trenched accordingly. He was right. Exactly at the expected like to leave open the possibility that the fallen elephant-
spot he reached 'a square brick base' measuring I I ft. 9 in. capital was then being worshipped as a cult-object in the
Brahmanical quarter, to which the Buddhist pilgrims would
X 10
as theft. 2 in. (3"55 of
description m. aXcabutra.
3-o8 m.),There
whichwas
we still
now norecognize
trace of not have been expected to pay special attention.
shaft, but in the centre of the brickwork was a large circular Although there is no final proof that the Sankisa elephant-
hole in which the shaft had originally stood. On the side pillar was a Method 'B' foundation, everything so far known
nearest the fallen capital, 'there was a great gap.. . showing about this pillar points to the plausibility of this hypothesis.
that the shaft had certainly fallen in that direction.' Un- In a later context, when re-examining this hypothesis in
fortunately, he tells us no more about the foundations. We light of the total picture, we shall see that the plausibility
cannot therefore conclude positively that the pillar had been is greatly reinforced.
erected without a placement stone. On the other hand,
The ninth pillar to be classified according to its founda-
knowing Cunningham's thoroughness and the pains he took
tions is one about which we have very positive evidence. It
to collect evidence at other pillar-sites, one would certainly
is the quadruple-lion pillar which originally stood at the
have expected him to have investigated to the bottom of the
south gateway of the Great Sttipa at Sanchi. The capital
hole and to have reported a placement stone if he had found
(Fig.7) is now in the site museum at Sanchi, and the stump
one.
of the shaft is still in situ. This pillar is the odd-man-out: it
One thing Cunningham did feel certain is about
neitherwasMethodthat
'A' nor 'B', and there is a simple explana-
the pillar had collapsed a very long time tion ago. Calculating
as to why its foundations differ from all the others.
from the depth and nature of topsoil formation,
Sanchihe is aestimated
monastic settlement on top of a hill of solid
A.D. 75o as the approximate date of the fall. He
bedrock, with wasveryun- little topsoil. The only way a pillar
doubtedly influenced in this calculation by the fact that both
could have been erected was by first cutting a man-size
Fa-hsien and Hstian Tsang, visiting Sankisa aboutinA.D.
depression 400
the rock, then inserting the shaft and wedging
and 636 respectively, had reported seeing at itthe site of the
with loose stones against the side-walls of rock. This is
miraculous staircase a monastery and an exactly
'AMokan' what waspillar
revealed when the stump was explored to
with a lion on top.65 He had a fixed idea that this
its foundations by Sir was John Marshall in 1912.70 The drawing
the pillar the pilgrims saw and that both had mistaken the
Marshall published with his report does not lend itself to
elephant for a lion.66 But was this reallyclear the site of the
reproduction, so we have provided our own (Fig.O)
monastery and the pillar they described? Or was there a of the original, excluding details
which is a simplification
second pillar erected at Sankisa (in this case a lion-pillar)
irrelevant to the history of the pillar.
marking the site of the monastery and the miraculous
This drawingstair-
begs two important questions which, for
case at another spot? It is obvious from a somere-reading
unaccountable ofreason, Marshall seems to have
Cunningham's two reports that he was never entirely confi-
ignored: (I) why is the shaft off-set from the centre
dent about his identification of the site of the monastery.
depression in theIn rock; and (2) what is the meaning
cylinder-like object so carefully delineated by the dra
63 Archaeological Survey Reports, vol.I [18711], pp.274-75. man in the true centre of the depression? It is certai
64 Ibid., vol.XI [i88o], pp.22-23.
65 S. BEAL: Buddhist records of the Western world, London [1884], vol.I, pp.xl-xli
(for Fah-Hian's report); and pp.203-04 (for Hsian-Tsang).
67' Archaeological Survey Reports, vol.I [1871], p.273.
66 The implausibility of Cunningham's theory that the pilgrims independently
68 Ibid., p.278.
mistook the elephant for a lion is surely underlined by Hsian Tsang's specific
69 Lecture entitled, 'Archaeology and the Life of the Buddha', delive
description of the lion as 'sitting on haunches', alternatively translated as Society, London, in 1973.
Royal Asiatic
'sitting in a squatting position'. For a laboured (and in our view, utterly
70 SIR JOHN MARSHALL: 'The monuments of Sdnchi', Archaeological S
unconvincing) attempt to support Cunningham's theory, see K. KISHOR: 'A
India, Annual Report, r913-14, pp.1-39. Marshall returns to the sub
note on the Agoka capital at Sankisa', Journal of United Provinces Historical
without making any fresh observations, in The monuments of Sdnc
Society, vol.XIV [1941]. pp.105-o07. Calcutta [1939], chapter 3.
725
'A' has sunk
that Meth
Method 'A
series of ar
we shall fin
Pr~estt4Grwnd Level
SroAE FLOOR
Out of the
RED CONCRET in nine cas
their foun
pillar which
have recog
at Vais'tli
because th
BED ROF
pattern: on
0 1 2 3 4
with the La
which lin
O. Excavation actually
of Sanchi be
Pil
Hitherto,
pillar has b
would deny
in the plain,of
tradition squ
In
the siting of import
rather un-f
that the of questions
two the sha
is off-set because
opinion the
has
been made 'primitiven
for the e
approximately the
pillars. Alths
other words,
basethe
of cyl
this
originally evidence
occupied byis
must have hitherto
been still
br
later erected.
shallIn dues
now
disintegrated
is and, as
availableu
its decay must
learnedhave
abo
percolating A determin
from the s
where an 'AMokan'
Vaiali pil
pilla
the penetratin
successor to an ear
From the was
accumulat
defeat
further not even W
deduction. r
buoyant trimmed
and tensile se
m
not sink into
thea wet
shaftsub
m
Method 'B' was
the the me
groun
tion of wooden shafts
significant
erecting pillars
partlyofto
sto
t
traditionally establis
partly to th
results, as wet
we sand.'
have seeW
founded on
at wet
leastsubs
a p
bound to sink.
could This
not le
- Method 'A'
all - which
other un
(As far as of
we Abokan
know,
underpinn
7t With this we are
knowledge left
gai
published with the reportb
therefore
(Archaeological Survey of In
again, we Style,
notice that in
the sto
to the centre without
of the th
platfor
bricks used to build the sou
with those
than those used for the north
the southern sequence
half was a latero
work on the evidence
site. While is
admi
like to postulate three perio
pillar-rem
represented only by the nort
pillar older most
than the famo
bull-pi
the cabutra, (Fig.I6),
which is na
related
the lion-pillar; and
court (3) repa
who
re-making with different m
cabutra. It is not 72Archaeologic
certain to
east corner pp.I2-I6.
belong.
726
'ASOKAN' PILLARS: A REASSESSMENT OF THE EVIDENCE-I STRUCTURE
shaft, erected it towards the end of the second

None centuryof B.C.73 the pillars in
The style of this pillar, compared with its 'AMokan' pre-
Abokan inscription o
decessors, does not represent a breakdownthe surviving
from the emblems,
refinedtwo are Indian animals carved in
to the plain and clumsy; on the contrary,purely
it marks a decay
Indian style; the third is a lion in foreign, heraldic
into over-refinement. The 'bell', for instance,
style - butis somewhat
clearly the earliest of the surviving Indian lion-
attenuated and effeminate in comparison sculptures.
with the 'bells' of
'Asokan' capitals. Decoration has become more ornate and
self-conscious and extends even to the shafts, with a prolifera-
LATER GROUP (Method 'A' foundations)
tion of fussy detail. On grounds of style, therefore, as well as
on the limited evidence of archaeology, we have no difficulty
in recognizing the VaiMlil pillar as relatively early in the
sequence ofpillars traditionally called 'A*okan' or 'Mauryan'.
Summarizing progress so far, we can now conclude with
an apparently firm relative chronology based on two main
groupings:
STLourya- r urva Lon Gohaw
EARLY GROUP (Method 'B' foundations)
All surviving shafts in this Group are inscribed with A
edicts. In three out of five cases, there is independent e
that these pillars were erected by Adoka. The surv
emblems are all lions carved in a foreign, heraldic styl
This initial pattern of chronology has been derived f
study of shafts alone. We have not yet started our
examination of the capitals, which will be the subject
next article. This in turn will give us an opportun
loo u sons ousambi VIaSo/
testing those elements of our chronology which a
tentative and hypothetical. In the fourth and final con
tion we shall discuss religious function and symbo
Ia This pillar is fully discussed in my article, 'The Heliodorus Pillar: a fresh a new interpretation of the proper place o
offering
appraisal', AARP (Art and Archaeology Research Papers), London, No.6great works of art, not only in Indian tradition, but i
[Decem-
ber, 1974]. broader context of the human heritage.
GERMANO MULAZZANI
Bramantino's 'Crucifixion': Iconogra

Commissioning
IN an attempt at laying the foundations for a better under-

representation, free of movement, charged at the same
standing of Bramantino by an investigation of thewith
icono-
enigmatic symbolism. However, it does not seem t
graphy of his works, I have thought it desirable toright
direct
to maintain that this tendency towards abstraction
attention, after an initial approach which had as its subject
an invariable feature of his art; only in course of time d
a painting of relatively minor importance,1 to the great
come to work out a style which little by little excluded a
Crucifixion in the Brera (Fig.I7). Generally regarded as a
all contact with the spectator, and this evolution sh
work of the artist's full maturity, it undoubtedly sumsperhaps
up the be borne in mind as a guide to the reconstru
salient features of his art, from both the stylistic and of
poetical
his development and to a new evaluation of his en
points of view.2 In fact it provides conclusive confirmation
work. The comparison with a painting certainly belo
of Bramantino's determination to construct an abstract
to the earliest phase of his activity, such as the Ma
Sorrows in the Thyssen Collection, fully confirms this
pothesis: in both cases the artist sets out to deliver in fi
1 G. MULAZZANI: 'Per Bramantino: L' "Uomo di dolori" della Collezione tive terms an abstruse message, but in the case of the
Thyssen', Commentari, XXIII [1972], pp.282-87.
2 Canvas, 372 by 270o cm. The provenance of the painting is unknown: see (as Crucifixion, the dialogue with the spectator is lacking even
well as for its movements outside Milan since its entry into the Pinocoteca), though certain formal solutions, derived from Bramante, sur-
F. MALAGUZZI VALERI: Catalogo della Pinacoteca di Brera, Bergamo [19o8], 204-o5. vive, which should help to perpetuate this contact. The
Quite without foundation is the hypothesis of Mongeri that it comes from the
daring foreshortening of the two lateral crosses, the skull in
Church of S. M. di Brera, cf. w. SUIDA: Bramnante pittore e Bramantino, Milan
[1953], p.Io2, n.I 17. On Bramantino in general see also F. MAZZINI in Storia di the foreground, the two figures at either side who turn in our
Milano, Milan [1i957], VIII, pp.592-614 (with bibliography). direction, are all contrivances designed to give the spectator
727
i. The Rdmp?rvd Bull-capital. Polished sandstone; height, 2-o6 m. From Rampfirvi, Champaran District, N. Bihar. (President's
Palace, New Delhi.)

Structure and Symbolism of Ancient 'Asokan' Pillars

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'Aśokan' Pillars: A Reassessment of the Evidence-II: Structure

Author(s): John Irwin

'Asokan' Pillars: a reassessment of the evidence-

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Scale 1. Feet Itt o e Itch.

9. The shafts of the two Rfmpfirvi pillars as seen today. (Rfampfirvi,

II. Drawing of Rimpfrvfi Lion-pillar published with the first excavation

I3. The Gotihawa pillar-stump, partly excavated. (Near Gotihawa village

SA HI*efib Odus 0SCAL 0 I ma Es

pole,from another. Thereand

gencous group commissioned from a single imperial Carlleylesource.

originated from the same quarry? In the absence of expert

proud ( ) . 4 oF bfl blow

projections of one kind, some of another, and some have n

more lasting pathway without likelihood of subsidence.

was the original location of the pillar. However,

In 1877, Carlleyle dug down to the foundations and re-

,,,/ic//ow w... ca - (Corilyle) wi/h

41 MUKHERJI, op. cit., p.31.

distinct soil strata: topsoil, sand, topsoil,

fuller excavation to a certain Mr Nesbitt, District Engineer, r ? -I b

who, in 1870, persevered through the obstructing brickwork

did not publish a report,55 but comparison with the 1922

untrimmed section of the shaft. At this point he probably

N. Excavation of Rampfirv Bull-pillar (section).

shaft, erected it towards the end of the second

Bramantino's 'Crucifixion': Iconogra

IN an attempt at laying the foundations for a better under-

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