page_title: Dhar iron pillar
section_title: Manufacturing and erection
hierarchical_section_title: Dhar iron pillar / Manufacturing and erection
caption_attribution_description: English: Plan of the historic parts of the city of Dhar, Madhya Pradesh, India.
context_page_description: The Dhar iron pillar is a now-fragmented iron column located in the Dhar town of Madhya Pradesh, India. The exact origins of the pillar are unknown, but according to the local tradition, it was a victory column erected by the 11th century Paramara king Bhoja.
  Three of its fragments are now located near the 15th century Lat Masjid, which is named after the pillar. A fourth portion is believed to be missing. The original pillar tapered from bottom to top: the bottom fragment has a square cross-section; the middle fragment has square and octagonal cross-sections, and the top fragment has an octagonal cross-section with a small circular part at the end. The total length of the three fragments is 13.21 metres, which indicates that the original pillar must have been twice as high as the iron pillar of Delhi. The combined weight of the fragments is estimated at around 7300 kg, which is at least 1,000 kg more than the Delhi pillar's weight. At the time of its erection, it was probably the largest forge-welded iron pillar in the world.
context_section_description: The pillar does not bear an inscription mentioning its erector, date or purpose. It is located at Dhar, which was the capital of the Paramara dynasty. According to the local tradition, the pillar commemorates a military victory of the 11th century Paramara king Bhoja, whose knowledge of iron metallurgy can be seen in his book Yuktikalpataru. Henry Cousens of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) theorized that it was constructed by the later Paramara king Arjunavarman in 1210 CE, from the molten arms of an enemy force.
  The Lat Masjid, in whose compound the pillar is located, was constructed with spolia from Hindu and Jain temples. R. Balasubramaniam theorizes that a Shiva temple previously occupied the site, and the pillar was originally located at the front of this temple, with a trishula (trident) at the top.
  The two largest fragments have a number of holes at irregular intervals, on all sides. The depth of the holes ranges from 41–76 millimetres (1.6–3 in), and their diameter ranges from 30–76 millimetres (1.2–3 in). Because they are distributed unevenly, they do not appear to be slots for lamps (as in a deepa-stambha). Cousens speculated that these were used by the forgers and welders to handle the pillar with their instruments during the manufacturing process. Roessler agreed with this hypothesis, and proposed that these slots were also used to hold the pillar upright using iron anchors.
  The pillar appears to have been built using horizontal forge welding technique. Brahm Prakash theorized that smaller sections, measuring 710 millimetres (2 ft 4 in) to 840 millimetres (2 ft 9 in) in length, were joined together to form the pillar.
caption: The pillar is located in the south-eastern part of the former fortified city of Dhar
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