Delhi-Topra

Discovery of Delhi–Topra Harry Falk, Asokan Sites and Artefacts, 215–219 Discovery See "Early Visitors" below; the first full description appeared in Jones 1788. A reading of some phrases was published by Prinsep 1837a: 470+473. Early Visitors: Generally, the reports on the two pillars in Delhi tend to mix facts. In particular the aspect of "hunting" and the subterranean passage are transferred from the Mirath pillar to the Topra pillar: Father Monserrate (1580): "In a valley three miles from Delinum he [Peruzius = Fīrūz Shah] built a wonderfully beautiful and very costly palace. On the terrace in front of it he set a solid marble column all in one piece, thirty feet high and about five feet thick. He also had a subterranean passage made to Old Delinum... (a distance of nearly forthy stadia [7 km])" (Hoyland 1922: 97). Thomas Coryat (1612-17): "I have beene in a citie in this countrie, called Detee [Delhi], where Alexander the Great joyned battell with Porus, K[ing] of India, and conquered him; and in token of his victorie erected a brasse pillar, which remaineth there to this day" (W. Foster 1921: 248). Coryat may have confused the iron pil…