The Iron Pillar that stands in the courtyard of the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque at the Qutub Complex in Delhi is a major tourist attraction. This metallurgical marvel of ancient India has been studied by archaeologists, metallurgists, technologists, scientists, electrochemists and engineers for a long time. This pillar, made of wrought iron, is unique in the annals of metallurgy and is a wonderful example of the metallurgical skill of ancient Indians. It has won the unstinted admiration of all who have seen it.

Let us read some views expressed by some distinguished European scholars who had seen the pillar in the nineteenth century. Roscoe and Schorlemmer, in their Treatise on Chemistry, have remarked that ‘the dexterity exhibited by the Hindus in the manufacture of wrought iron may be estimated from the fact of the existence in the Mosque of the Kutub near Delhi of a wrought iron pillar no less than 60 feet in length. This pillar stands about 30 feet out of ground and has an ornamental cap bearing an inscription in Sanskrit belonging to the fourth century. It is not an easy operation at the present day to forge such a mass with our largest rolls and steam hammers; how this could be effected by the rude hand-labour of the Hindus we are at a loss to understand.’ Although the two chemists mistakenly quoted the total length of the Delhi Pillar to be sixty feet and were not aware of other large iron objects in India (like the iron pillar at Dhar), their eulogy of the Delhi Iron Pillar is worth noting.