Place · Gupta inscribed iron column · India
Iron Pillar of Delhi
Also known as Iron Pillar, Iron Pillar of Delhi, Mehrauli iron pillar, Dhwaja Stambha
A seven-metre, six-ton wrought-iron column from the fourth or fifth century CE now standing in the courtyard of the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque at the Qutb complex in Delhi, where it was placed when the mosque was built around 1200 — the pillar is eight centuries older than the enclosure around it. Its Sanskrit inscription in Gupta Brahmi script credits a king 'Chandra', most likely Chandragupta II Vikramaditya (c. 375–415 CE), and describes the pillar as a standard of Vishnu erected on a Vishnupada hill. The pillar's resistance to rust — it has lost less than three millimetres of mass in 1,600 years — is produced by its 1% phosphorus content forming a thin passive layer, which is a metallurgical achievement no other ancient civilisation matched.
- Date
- 375–415
- Function
- Text & inscription
- Patron dynasty
- Gupta
- Tradition
- Chandra inscription; Sanskrit Brahmi epigraphy; R. Balasubramaniam, Story of the Delhi Iron Pillar (2005).
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 28.524, 77.186
Worth knowing
It was brought to the Qutb complex by Iltutmish from somewhere else, almost certainly the Udayagiri caves near Vidisha where it was originally raised as a Vishnu dhvaja. The 'Vishnupada hill' of the inscription is identified with Udayagiri, where the Chandragupta cave face carries a parallel Vishnu iconography. The pillar's non-rusting composition was reproduced only in 2003 by R. Balasubramaniam at IIT Kanpur, who found the phosphorus-rich protective layer.
Connections (3)
- Site withinQutb complex, Delhi
The Iron Pillar stands in the courtyard of the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque at the Qutb complex, where Iltutmish placed it when the mosque was built around 1200 — eight centuries after the pillar itself had been cast and inscribed in the Gupta period. The pillar is now the oldest object in the complex by a wide margin and the one surviving piece of pre-Islamic Delhi within the enclosure.
- Commissioned byChandragupta II Vikramaditya
The Iron Pillar's Sanskrit Brahmi inscription credits a king 'Chandra' who ruled the Vangas, Vahlikas and other peoples and raised the pillar as a standard of Vishnu on a Vishnupada hill. The 'Chandra' is almost universally identified as Chandragupta II Vikramaditya (c. 375–415 CE) on palaeographic and historical grounds. The pillar was originally raised at the Vishnupada site — most likely Udayagiri near Vidisha where Chandragupta II's cave inscriptions survive — and brought to Delhi later.
- Originated fromUdayagiri caves, Vidisha
The Iron Pillar's 'Vishnupada hill' of its original inscription is most commonly identified with the Udayagiri caves near Vidisha, where Chandragupta II's cave inscriptions, his Varaha panel and the Vishnupada ritual landscape all suggest the pillar was originally raised there as a Vishnu dhvaja. Iltutmish, or an unknown earlier Delhi Sultanate ruler, is responsible for bringing it from Udayagiri to the Mehrauli site around 1200.