About the Kutub Minar itself there is overwhelming proof that it was a Hindu tower existing hundreds of years before Kutubuddin and therefore it is wrong to ascribe the tower to Kutubuddin.
The township adjoining the Kutub Minar is known as Mehrauli. That is a Sanskrit word Mihira-awali. It signifies the town- ship where the well known astronomer Mihira of Vikramaditya's court lived along with his helpers, mathemati- cians and technicians. They used the so-called Kutub tower as an observation post for astronomical study. Around the tower were pavilions dedicated to the 27 constel- lations of the Hindu Zodiac.
Kutubuddin has left us an inscription that he destroyed these pavilions. But he has not said that he raised any tower. The ravaged temple was renamed as Kuwat-ul-Islam mosque.
Stones dislodged from the so-called Kutub Minar have Hindu images on one side with Arabic lettering on the other. Those stones have now been removed to the Museum. They clearly show that Muslim invaders used to remove the stone- dressing of Hindu buildings, turn the stones inside out to hide the image facial and inscribe Arabic lettering on the new frontage.
Bits of Sanskrit inscriptions can still be deciphered in the premises on numerous pillars and walls. Numerous images still adorn the cornices though disfigured.
The tower is but a part of the surrounding structures. It is not that while the temples around are earlier Hindu build- ings there was sufficient space left in between for Kutubud- din to come and build a tower. Its very ornate style proves that it is a Hindu tower. Mosque minarets have plane sur- faces. Those who contend that the tower was meant to call the Muslim residents to prayer have perhaps never tried to go to the top and try to shout to the people below. Had they done so they would have found out for themselves that no one on the ground can hear them from that height. Such absurd claims have been made to justfy Muslim authorship of earlier Hindu buildings.
Another important consideration is that the entrance to the tower faces north and not the west as is enjoined by Islamic theology and practice.
At either side of the entrance is the stone lotus flower emblem which also proves that it was a Hindu building. The stone flowers are a very important sign of the Hindu author- ship of mediaeval buildings. Muslims never use such flowers on the buildings they construct.
The frieze Patterns on the tower show signs of tampering, ending abruptly or in a medley of incongruent lines. The Arabic lettering is interspersed with Hindu motifs like lotus buds hanging limp. Sir Sayyad Ahmad Khan, a staunch Muslim and a scholar, has admitted that the tower is a Hindu building.
If one were to hoover in an aeroplane over the top of the tower the various galleries sliding into each other from top to bottom appear like a 24-petal lotus in full bloom. The figure 24 being a multiple of 8 is sacred in Vedic tradi- tion. Even the brick red colour of the tower is sacred to the Hindus.
