Forgetting History: Delhi’s “Iron Pillar”
I recently stumbled on this news-item about the development of a new type of corrosion-resistant iron by Prof Balasubramaniam and one of his colleagues at IIT, Kanpur (emphasis mine):
…Indian metallurgists have developed a type of corrosion-resistant iron that construction engineers would love. And vital clues for it came for Delhi’s famous Iron Pillar that has been standing tall for over 1,600 years.
Developed by Ramamurthy Balasubramaniam and his former student Gadadhar Sahoo of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur, the iron contains phosphorus and shows remarkable resistance to corrosion, especially in concrete.
…
Ironically, Bala’s material is not new. It was being made by Indian ironsmiths centuries ago. Bala says he got the clue for developing this material from the six-tonne seven-metre tall Delhi Iron Pillar - a major tourist attraction in the Qutb Minar complex — that has been standing for centuries in the harsh weather of the capital without any corrosion.
“As a metallurgist, I was intrigued,” Bala told IANS. And his passionate quest to unravel the mystery that began in 1990s has now culminated in phosphoric irons.
…(commendably) All the work, he said, was done with institute funds without any external support.
Most of you of course know about the Iron Pillar but I was not aware that it was originally located at Udayagiri (roughly translated as “sunrise peak”) near Vidisha where it was part of a complex of temples and buildings.
At the Udayagiri site, the pillar almost certainly served an important astronomical function. The Udaygiri complex itself offers clear evidence of advanced knowledge and understanding of astronomy in ancient India - a knowledge that survived at least until the early centuries of the millenium (~400 A.D.).
Incidentally, the pillar appears to be further proof of the distortion of history in the dash to appear “secular” or “modern”.
So even though it is widely acknowledged that the pillar was constructed and erected during the reign of Chandragupta II Vikramaditya (375-413), instead of being called the Chandragupta (or Vikramaditya) Pillar, it is commonly referred to as the “Iron Pillar” or the ”Mehrauli Pillar”*.
Isn’t this exactly how an entire generation “forgets” its history? I wonder.
Related Posts:
Lies and half-truths in the name of national integration
Does no one remember the Indian contribution to Technology?
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* As an interesting exercise, google for “Mehrauli Pillar”, “Iron Pillar” and “Chandragupta Pillar” - the results will speak for themselves.
Further Reading:
A review of “Delhi Iron Pillar: New Insights. Balasubramaniam, R. ”
On the astronomical significance of the Delhi iron pillar by R. Balasubramaniam and Meera I. Dass
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