of magniloquent inscriptions in praise of their grandeur.  The best-known of the Asoka pillars are the two at Delhi, and the one at Allahabad.  Many scholars have devoted themselves to the study of the inscriptions of Asoka, which may be said to form the foundation of authentic Indian history.  The reader interested in the subject should consult Senart, Les Inscriptions de Piyadasi, t.  I and II, Paris, 1881, 1886; V. A. Smith, Asoka, the Buddhist Emperor of India, 2nd ed..  Oxford, 1909; and ’The Monolithic Pillars or Columns of Asoka’ (Z.D.M.G., 1911, pp. 221- 10).  See also E.H.I., 3rd ed. (Oxford, 1914), chap. 6, 7, with Bibliography.  Certain of the Gupta emperors in the fifth century A.C. also erected monolith pillars.  Some of the pillars of the Gupta period commemorate victories; others are merely religious monuments.

18.  Fergusson thought the Kutb Minar superior to Giotto’s campanile at Florence in ‘poetry of design and exquisite finish of detail’.  He also held it to excel its taller Egyptian rival, the minaret of the mosque of Hasan at Cairo, in its nobler appearance, as well as in design and finish.  To sum up, he held the Delhi monument to surpass any building of its class in the whole world. (Hist. of Indian and Eastern Architecture, ed. 1910, vol. ii, p. 206.)

19.  Fergusson (ibid.) was mistaken in supposing that the Kutb Minar was intended for anything else than a mazina, or tower from which the call to prayers should be proclaimed.  It is that and nothing else.  Several examples of early mosques with only one minar each are known, at Koil and Bayana, in India, as well as at Ghazni and Cairo.  The unfinished minar of Alauddin near the Kutb Minar was intended for a distinct building, namely, his addition to the original Kutb mosque.  There was no ‘other minar’ connected with the Kutb Minar.(Cunningham, A.S.R. iv (1874), p. ix.)

The current name of the Kutb Minar refers to the saint Khwaja Kutb-ud-din of Ush, who lies near the tower, and not to Sultan Kutb-ud-din Aibak or Ibak.  The minar was erected, about A.D. 1232, by Sultan Shams-ud-din Iltutmish (V.  A. Smith, ‘Who Built the Kutb Minar?’ East and West, Bombay, Dec. 1907, pp. 1200-5; B. N. Munshi, The Kutb Minar, Delhi, Bombay, 1911).

All the important monuments at or near Delhi are now carefully conserved, Lord Curzon having organized effective arrangements for the purpose.

20.  The original edition gives a coloured plate of the Kutb Minar.  The total height stated in the text, 242 feet, is said by Fergusson (p. 205, note) to be that ascertained in 1794; the present height of the minar, since the modern pavilion on the top has been removed, is 238 feet 1 inch, according to Cunningham. (A.S.R., vol. i, p. 196.) Originally the building was ten, or perhaps twenty, feet higher.  The deep flutings appear to have been suggested by the minars of Mahmud at Ghazni, ’which are star polygons in plan, with deeply indented angles’.  The Kutb Minar was built by Sultan Iltutmish alone about A.D. 1232.  The statement in most books, including Fanshawe (pp. 265-8, with plates), that it was begun by Sultan Kutb-ud-din, is erroneous.