The Heliodorus pillar was erected around 110 BCE in central India at the site of Vidisha, by Heliodorus, a Greek ambassador of the Indo-Greek king Antialcidas to the court of the Sunga king Bhagabhadra.

The pillar was surmounted by a sculpture of Garuda and was apparently dedicated by Heliodorus to the god Vasudeo in front of the temple of Vasudeva.

Inscriptions

There are two inscriptions on the pillar.

The first inscription describes in Brahmi the situation of Heliodorus and his relationship to the Sunga and Indo-Greek kings.

"Devadevasa Va vasa Garudadhvajo ayam

karito i Heliodorena bhaga-

vatena Diyasa putrena Takhasilakena

Yonadatena agatena maharajasa

Amtalikitasa upata samkasam-rano

Kasiputasa agabhadrasa tratarasa

vasena dasena rajena vadhamanasa"

"This Garuda-standard of Vasudeva (Vishnu), the God of Gods

was erected here by the Bhagavata Heliodoros,

the son of Dion, a man of Taxila,

sent by the Great Greek (Yona) King

Antialkidas, as ambassador to

King Kasiputra Bhagabhadra, the Savior

son of the princess from Benares, in the fourteenth year of his reign."

(Archaeological Survey of



India, Annual Report (1908-1909))

Although not perfectly clear, the inscription seems to be referring to Heliodoros as a Bhagavata (Sanskrit: “One Devoted to Bhagavat (Lord)”), a member of the earliest recorded Hindu faith devoted to Vishnu, that accepts Kapila and the Buddha as his incarnations (see the Bhagavata-Purana).

The second inscription on the pillar describe in more detail the spiritual content of the faith supported by Heliodorus:

Trini amutapadani‹ anuthitani

nayamti svaga damo chago apramado

"Three immortal precepts (footsteps).. when practiced

lead to heaven: self-restraint, charity, consciousness."

(Archaeological Survey of



India, Annual Report (1908-1909)).

Hindu-Buddhist reconciliation

The Heliodorus pillar seems to indicate some level of reconciliation between the faith of the Buddha which tended to be supported by the Indo-Greeks, and the Hinduist faith of the Sunga (who before had persecuted Buddhism from the time of Pusyamitra Sunga), through their incorporation of the Buddha within the Bhagavatam pantheon.

This reconcialiation was symbolized by a high-ranking Indo-Greek ambassador devoting a monument to the syncretic faith of the Sunga, while at the same time reafirming his beliefs in Buddhist moral precepts.

See also

• Greco-Buddhism
• History of Buddhism