Gupta Age Sculpture and the Iron Pillar of Delhi

1.1 What is the Iron Pillar of Delhi?

The Iron Pillar of Delhi is an ancient iron column. It stands in the courtyard of the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque. The mosque is part of the Qutb Minar complex in Mehrauli, Delhi.

It was made in the Gupta period, about 400 CE. That is more than 1,600 years ago. It weighs over six tonnes. It is famous because it has stayed almost free of rust.

1.2 How tall is it, and how was it made?

The pillar is about 7 metres tall in all. About 5 metres of it stands above the platform. A decorative capital sits on top of the shaft. A deep hole at the top may once have held an image of Garuda. Garuda is the bird that carries Vishnu.

The makers did not pour the metal into a mould. They used forge welding. This means heating lumps of iron and joining them. Each lump weighed about 18 to 23 kilograms. The pillar was likely made lying flat.

1.3 What does the inscription say?

The oldest inscription is in Sanskrit and has six lines. It is carved about 2 metres above the platform. It says the pillar was made for a temple of Vishnu. A king named Chandra ordered it.

Historians usually identify Chandra with Chandragupta II. His gold coins show the short name Chandra. They also show him as an archer. Still, the identity is not fully certain.

1.4 How is it different from Ashoka’s pillar?

Delhi has another famous ancient pillar. It stands at Feroz Shah Kotla. That one is an Ashokan pillar. Edicts of Ashoka are carved on it. Sultan Firuz Shah Tughlaq re-erected it there. It was brought from Ambala.

The Mehrauli pillar is different. It is made of iron. It is Gupta, not Mauryan. Its inscription praises a king and honours Vishnu.

2.1 What is rust, and why is this pillar special?

Rust is the flaky, reddish-brown layer that forms when iron meets air and water. Iron left in the open usually rusts and slowly wears away.

This pillar has stood in the open for over 1,600 years. It is still relatively free of rust. Scientists have studied it since 1912.

2.2 What does the chemistry say?

The pillar is mostly iron. It also holds about 0.25 percent phosphorus. Its sulphur is very low, about 0.005 percent. Scientists link high phosphorus and low sulphur to its long life.

Metallurgist R. Balasubramaniam studied the pillar for years. He found that phosphorus takes part in reactions on the surface. These reactions form a thin layer of iron hydrogen phosphate hydrate. This layer protects the iron beneath it.

2.3 Did the climate help?

Some scientists point to Delhi’s dry air. Its relative humidity stays under 70 percent for most of the year. Dry air slows rusting.

But the weather records behind this idea cover only 1930 to 1960. That is too short to judge 1,600 years. The pillar may also have stood elsewhere before. Its first home may have had a different climate.

2.4 Did the makers know what they were doing?

Balasubramaniam believed they did. He thought the makers knew that more phosphorus meant less rust. He thought they chose high-phosphorus iron ore on purpose. This is his view, not a settled fact.

Scientists also say the pillar may guide the design of rust-resistant iron today. Its picture is the emblem of two metal bodies. They are the National Metallurgical Laboratory and the Indian Institute of Metals.

3.1 Why was it not made in Delhi?

The inscription says the standard of Vishnu was set up on a hill called Vishnupada. Delhi has no hill that fits this description.

So the pillar was probably brought from somewhere else. The inscription itself is the clue.

3.2 Which places do scholars suggest?

Scholars do not agree. Some say Mathura or Haridwar. Others say a place near the river Beas, in the Himalayan region.

Balasubramaniam argued for Udayagiri, near Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh. Many academics have accepted this view. Britannica also says the pillar was likely made at Udayagiri. It notes that other accounts name Mathura.

3.3 Why Udayagiri?

The Udayagiri caves are the only works clearly tied to Chandragupta II. Balasubramaniam said the pillar once stood in front of Cave 5. That cave has the Varaha relief of Vishnu.

Other scholars, Michael Willis and Meera Dass, added an idea. Udayagiri lies near the Tropic of Cancer. On the summer solstice, the pillar’s morning shadow would fall along a cut passage toward the Varaha relief.

3.4 Who moved it to Delhi?

Nobody knows for sure. Some researchers think Sultan Iltutmish moved it in the 13th century. Others think the Tomara king Anangapala moved it to a temple in Lal Kot, Delhi, about 1050. They say it reached its present spot near the mosque about 1191.

4.1 What was the Gupta “ideal image”?

The Gupta period ran from the 4th to the 6th century CE in northern India. It is sometimes called a Golden Age. Artists then created an ideal image of the Buddha.

They mixed selected traits from the Gandhara region with the sensuous form made by Mathura artists. Gupta Buddhas have hair in tiny individual curls. They also have a downward glance and a spiritual aura.

4.2 How do Sarnath and Mathura differ?

Both cities made fine Buddhas. The robe is the easiest clue. At Mathura, a network of strings suggests the folds of cloth. At Sarnath, the robe is a transparent sheath.

Britannica adds more detail. Sarnath robes are plain, with no ridged folds. Sarnath faces are heart-shaped. Mathura used local red sandstone. Sarnath preferred buff Chunar sandstone.

4.3 Where did this style spread?

Gupta Buddhas became the model for later artists. Their influence reached post-Gupta and Pala India. It also reached Nepal, Thailand and Indonesia. Pilgrims carried Gupta metal images of the Buddha along the Silk Road to China.

5.1 What is at Udayagiri?

Udayagiri is near Vidisha. It has a series of simple rock-cut caves. They date from the opening years of the 5th century. The sculpture is in soft stone and has suffered badly. What survives shows strength and power.

5.2 What does the Varaha relief show?

The best-known work is a great relief panel. It shows Vishnu as Varaha, the boar incarnation. The god has a man’s body and a boar’s head. He lifts the earth goddess out of the deep waters. A demon had dragged her there.

The goddess rests easily on his shoulder. A crowd of human and divine beings celebrates the rescue.

5.3 What is the Dashavatara temple at Deogarh?

The temple stands at Deogarh in Uttar Pradesh. It is on the bank of the Betwa river. It dates to the beginning of the 6th century. Its name comes from the ten incarnations of Vishnu shown on it.

It is one of the few early Gupta temples that had a shikhara, or tower. The tower has partly collapsed.

Three large panels on its walls are famous. One shows Vishnu lying on the serpent Shesha. One shows the rescue of the elephant. One shows the penance of Nara-Narayana.

5.4 Cave or built temple?

Udayagiri’s caves are carved into rock. Deogarh’s temple is a built temple. Both belong to the Gupta period. Udayagiri comes from the early 5th century and Deogarh from the early 6th.

UNESCO says these Gupta temples represent an early stage in the growth of temple building in India. It lists Cave 1 at Udayagiri and the Deogarh temple together in one tentative nomination.

5.5 What do exams test?

Remember these pairs:

• Iron Pillar: Gupta, about 400 CE, Mehrauli, honours Vishnu. Not Ashoka’s.
• Rust: high phosphorus and low sulphur.
• Sarnath: plain, transparent robe. Mathura: folds suggested by strings.
• Udayagiri Cave 5: Varaha lifts the earth goddess.
• Deogarh: Vishnu temple in Uttar Pradesh, early 6th century.