Allahabad Pillar

of the Allahabad Pillar, with lotuses framing a "flame palmette" surrounded by small rosette flowers. The Allahabad Pillar is a single shaft of polished sandstone standing high. It has a lower diameter of and an upper diameter of . The customary lotiform bell-shaped capital seen in the other Ashoka Pillars is lost, as is whichever statue mounted it. However the abacus, adorned by a "graceful scroll of alternate lotus and honeysuckle" that the statue must have rested upon, was found nearby. Cunningham believed that the capital must have been mounted by a single lion. The abacus is almost identical to the one found on the pillar at Sankasya suggesting proximate erection dates. Ashokan Pillar from Kaushambi According to the theory proposed by 19th-century archaeologists, and supported by Indian scholars such as Upinder Singh, the Allahabad Pillar came from somewhere else, probably Kaushambi. The Ashokan inscriptions suggest that the pillar was first erected at Kaushambi, an ancient town some 30 miles (50 kilometres) west of its current location which was then the capital of the kingdom of Vatsa. It was moved to Allahabad much later when the region came under Muslim rule. The presence of another broken pillar at Kaushambi near the ruins of the Ghoshitarama monastery has led some to believe that the Allahabad Pillar might have been one of a pair, not unlike the ones discovered at Rampurva. in the 18th century The pillar has been taken down and re-erected a number of times since the 13th century. According to Irwin, an analysis of the minor inscriptions and ancient scribblings on the pillar first observed by Cunningham, also noted by Krishnaswamy and Ghosh, reveals that these included years and months, and the latter "always turns out to be Magha, which also gives it name to the Magh Mela", the bathing pilgrimage festival of the Hindus. ==Inscriptions==

When James Prinsep of the Asiatic Society came across the broken pillar just inside the gates of the Allahabad Fort in , its inscriptions were being eroded by the rain and sun. He remarked, There are three sets of inscriptions on the column from the three emperors, Ashoka Maurya, Samudragupta and Jahangir. They are accompanied by some minor inscriptions by pilgrims and others, which were derided as a mass of modern scribblings by Alexander Cunningham. Some of these are, however, dated and coupled with the style of scripts used, are useful to establish the periods when the pillar was in an erect position, and when it was lying prone on the ground. Ashoka inscriptions The Ashokan inscriptions on the Allahabad Pillar (along with inscriptions elsewhere) were pivotal to the decipherment of the Brahmi script by The Asiatic Society's James Prinsep. It led to the rediscovery of the Mauryan emperor and the unearthing of the full extent of his empire. The inscription is engraved in continuous lines around the column in Brahmi and contains the same six edicts that can be seen on the other pillars. The surviving inscriptions from the Ashoka period are "uniform in size, neat and deeply engraved" observed Cunningham. Major Pillar Edicts 1-6 The pillar contains the Major Pillar Edicts of Ashoka, from 1 to 6. The first and second edicts have survived in full. However, much of the third and fourth edicts were "ruthlessly destroyed by the cutting of the vain-glorious inscription of Jahangir, recording the names of his ancestors". Only two lines of the fifth edict have survived, the others lost by surface peel off. The sixth is almost complete, with a loss of about half a line. These edits are the same as found at other Ashokan pillars. Besides the six edicts, the Allahabad pillar also includes what are known as the Schism edict, the ''Queen's edict and the Birbal Magha Mela inscription''. Schism edict The Schism Edict, referred to as the Kaushambi edict by Cunningham, is a command from the emperor addressing the senior officials (Mahamatras) of Kaushambi urging them to avoid dissension and stay united. The following is a conflation of various fragmented versions of the edict: Queen's edict of Bodh Gaya, also built by Ashoka. The Queen's Edict refers to the charitable deeds of Ashoka's second queen, Karuvaki, the mother of Prince Tivala. Samudragupta inscription A later inscription, also known as the Prayag Prashasti, is attributed to the 4th century CE Gupta Emperor Samudragupta, and follows immediately below the edicts of Ashoka. It is considered "the most important historical document of the classical Gupta age". It is in excellent Sanskrit, written in the more refined Gupta script (a later version of Brahmi) by the poet and minister, Harishena. The inscription is a panegyric praising Samudragupta and lists the political and military achievements of his reign including his expeditions to the south. It provides a unique snapshot of the Gupta Empire and its neighbours and is the source of much of what is known of the geopolitical landscape of that era. Earlier translations, including one by J. F. Fleet, also exist. Birbal Magh Mela inscription The Birbal Magh Mela inscription is from the second half of the 16th century. This inscription is significant because it confirms that Prayag was a significant pilgrimage center – Tirth Raj – for the Hindus in the 16th century, and that the festival was held in the month of Magha. The Samvat year 1632 is equivalent to 1575 CE, while Saka 1493 equals 1571 CE. One of these is a scribal error, but the decade is accurate because Allahabad was under Akbar's control at the time and where built a major fort. Historical documents also confirm that Birbal did visit Akbar and Allahabad often. Cunningham noted that many smaller inscriptions were added on the pillar over time. Quite many of these inscriptions include a date between 1319 CE and 1397 CE, and most of these include the month Magha. According to Krishnaswamy and Ghosh, these dates are likely related to the Magh Mela pilgrimage at Prayag, as recommended in the ancient Hindu texts. Jahangir inscription A still later inscription in Persian traces the ancestry of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir. It was carved by Mir Abdullah Mushkin Qalam, shortly before his accession to the throne when he was still Shah Salim. The Jahangir inscription overwrote and "ruthlessly destroyed" the significant portion of the ancient Ashoka inscription, states Cunningham. ==See also==