a vina, and the other on a flute, follow after ; in the midst is the Prince Siddhartha, in his chariot drawn by four prancing horses, and guarded by two horsemen behind it ; all rendered with that gala air of dainty pride, and enjoyment in the fleeting pleasures of the hour, which is characteristic of the Hindus to the present day, as if life were indeed
" musical as is Apollo’s lute, And a perpetual feist of nectared sweets. Where no crude surfeit reigns,”
The copper statue of Buddha at Sultanganj 1 [Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol. XXX, 360] is the largest metal work of ancient times extant in India, and a monument of the early proficiency of the Hindus in melting and casting metal. The iron pillar, which stands in the centre of the courtyard of the Kutub mosque at old Delhi, is a solid shaft of iron, 23 feet $ inches in total height, and 16 4 inches in diameter at the base, and 12*05 inches at the capital, which is 3I feet high. Mr. Fergusson assigns to it the mean date of a.d. 400, and observes that it opens our eyes to an unsuspected state of affairs to find the Hindus at that age capable of forging a bar of iron larger than any that has been forged in Europe up to a late date, and not frequently even now. After an exposure of fourteen centuries, it is still un rusted, and the capital and inscription are as clear and as sharp as when the pillar was first erected, A cast of it is shewn in the India Museum. The beautiful hammered and perforated brass gates of the tomb of Shah Alum at Ahmed- abad are another notable sample of the great skill of the natives of Gujarat in metal work.
Mr. Baden Powell in his Handbook on the Manufactures and Arts of the Punjab (Lahore, 1872), gives a complete list, with their native names and uses, of the commoner brass and copper
1 Now in private hands in Birmingham.— See F e rgu s son , History of Indian and Isas torn Architecture , p. 137.
