He is best known from an
inscription at the site of
Vidisha in central
India, the
Heliodorus pillar, in which contacts with an embassy from the
Indo-Greek King Antialcidas of
Taxila is recorded, and where he is named
Kasiputra Bhagabhadra,
the Saviour, son of the princess from
Benares": king
Antialcidas was the one who sent an embassy to Bhagabhadra. Translation: :(Archaeological Survey of India, Annual Report (1908-1909)) may have been sponsored by Bhagabhadra. The
Indo-Greeks and the
Shungas seem to have reconciled and exchanged diplomatic missions around 113 BCE, as indicated by the
Heliodorus pillar, which records the dispatch of a
Greek ambassador named
Heliodorus, from the court of the
Indo-Greek king
Antialcidas, to the court of the
Shunga emperor Bhagabhadra at the site of
Vidisha in
central India. A pillar known as the
Heliodorus column stands at
Besnagar, near
Sanchi in
Central India. Dating back to the first century BC, it features a
Sanskrit inscription that offers valuable insight into the
Indianization of the
Greeks who had settled on the Indian frontier. The pillar illustrates how these Greeks absorbed
Indian culture. The inscription has been translated as follows: This inscription is important in that it tends to validate that the Shungas ruled in the area of Vidisa around 100 BCE. This is also corroborated by some artistic realization on the nearby
Sanchi stupa thought to belong to the period of the Shungas. Altogether, three Shunga pillars have also been found in the area .The Garuda pillar erected by Heliodorous and the inscription written on this pillar is regarded as the earliest material evidence of Bhagavatism in India. ==References==