The Mehrauli Mystery

Abstract

The research work attempts to uncover the mystery behind the venerated Mehrauli Pillar in Delhi. When one looks at the pillar from the top, one may find an irregular hollow on the pedestal. The hollow arouses suspicion about an unknown article that once occupied the top of the pillar. The original article is irretrievably lost in time and remains an enigma to date. The paper uses various primary and secondary sources with the Gupta inscription on the column to identify the lost article. The study also considers the ancient sites of Eran and Udayagiri in present-day Madhya Pradesh. Gupta coins played a significant role to reconstruct the original article that crowned the Mehrauli pillar. If one were to describe the column in a word befitting its eloquence, an exotica, it would be. This paper analyses three possible articles that might’ve crowned the pillar following the conclusions made by various scholars. However, the original article atop the Mehrauli pillar remains a mystery.