The
Heliodorus Column
An
archaeological discovery proves that there
were western followers of Vedic principles
twenty-two centuries ago
By
Jack Hebner & Steven Rosen
Heliodorus
was a Greek ambassador to India in the second
century B.C. Few details are known about
the diplomatic relations between the Greeks
and the Indians in those days, and still
less is know about Heliodorus. But that
the column he erected at Besnagar in central
India about 113 B.C.(1). is considered one
of the most important archaeological finds
on the Indian subcontinent.
It
is known that Heliodorus was sent to the
court of King Bhagabhadra by Antiakalidas,
the Greek king of Taxila. The kingdom of
Taxila was part of the Bactrian region in
northwest India, conquered by Alexander
the Great in 325 B.C. By the time of Antialkidas,
the area under Greek rule included what
is today Afghanistan, Pakistan and Punjab.(2)
The
column erected by Heliodorus first came
to notice in 1877, during an archaeological
survey by General Cunningham. The inscription,
however, went unnoticed, because of the
pillar's thick coating of red lead paste.
It had been the custom of pilgrims who had
worshipped there to smear the column with
vermillion paste. The column, Cunningham
deduced from its shape, was from the period
of the Imperial Guptas (3) (A.D. 300-550).
Thirty-two years later, however, when the
inscription was brought to light, it became
clear that the monument was several centuries
older. (4)
In January 1901, a Mr. Lake discerned what
he thought was some lettering on the lower
part of the column, and removal of some
vermillion paste proved him right. Dr. J.H.
Marshall, who was accompanied by Mr. Lake,
described the discovery in the Journal of
the Royal Asiatic Society in 1909. Cunningham,
Marshall explained, had been mistaken about
the age of the column and "could little
have dreamt of the value of the record which
he just missed discovering." A glance
at the few letters exposed was all that
was needed to show that the column was many
centuries earlier than the Gupta era. This
was, indeed, a surprise to me, but a far
greater one was in store, when the opening
lines of the inscription came to be read."
(5)
A
reproduction of the inscription, along with
the transliteration and translation of the
ancient Brahmi text, is given here as it
appeared in the Journal of the Royal
Asiatic Society.
1)
Devadevasu Va[sude]vasa Garudadhvajo
ayam
2)
Karito ia Heliodorena bhaga
3)
Vatena Diyasa putrena Takhasilakena
4)
Yonadatena agatena maharajasa
5)
Amtalikitasa upa[m]ta samkasam-rano
6)
Kasiput[r]asa [Bh]agabhadrasa tratarasa
7)
Vasena [chatu]dasena rajena vadhamanasa
"
This Garuda-column of Vasudeva (Visnu),
the god of gods, was erected here by Heliodorus,
a worshipper of Vishnu, the son of Dion,
and an inhabitant of Taxila, who came as
Greek ambassador from the Great King Antialkidas
to King Kasiputra Bhagabhadra, the Savior,
then reigning prosperously in the fourteenth
year of his kingship."
1)
Trini amutapadani-[su] anuthitani
2)
nayamti svaga damo chago apramado
"Three
immortal precepts (footsteps)..when practiced
lead to heaven-self restraint, charity,
conscientiousness."
From
the inscriptions it is seems clear Heliodorus
was influenced by Vedic principles that
he could be considered to be a Vaisnava,
a follower or worshipper of Visnu. Professor
Kunja Govinda Goswami of Calcutta University
concludes that Heliodorus " was well
acquainted with the texts dealing with the
Bhagavat [Vaisnava] relgion." (6)
To our knowledge, Heliodorus is the earliest
Westerner on record to adopt Vedic principles.
But some scholars, most notably A.L. Basham
(7) and Thomas Hopkins, are of the opinion
that Heliodorus was not the only Greek to
adopt such principles. Hopkins, chairman
of the department of religious studies at
Franklin and Marshall College, has said
" Heliodorus was presumably not the
only foreigner who converted to Vaisnava
devotional practices -- although he might
have been the only one who erected a column,
at least one that is still extant. Certainly
there must have been many others."
(8)
It
is also interesting to note that the Heliodorus
column has other historical merits. Around
the turn of the century, a number of Indologists
(Weber, Macnicol, and others) had noted
" points of similarity' between the
Vaisnava philosophy of unalloyed devotion
and Christian doctrine. They had argued
that Vaishnavism (worship of Visnu and Krsna)
must have been an offshoot of Christianity,
and cited the similarity between stories
about Krsna and about Christ to further
support their claim.(9) But the discovery
of the inscription on the Heliodorus column
laid their speculations to rest. Here was
conclusive archaeological proof that the
Vaisnava tradition antedated Christianity
by at least two hundred years.
The
column also struck down another popular
notion. For centuries it was a common belief
among scholars that India's orthodox tradition
did not accept converts. An Islamic historian,
Abu Raihan Alberuni, who went to India in
A.D. 1017, tried to explain in his book
Indica why the Indian orthodoxy did not
admit foreigners. Alberuni suggested that
the practice developed only after the Moslem
incursion into India, sometime after A.D.
674.(10) Antagonism between the Moslems
and Hindus seems to be the main reason behind
the non conversion practice. For many centuries
prior to Moslem presence, however, there
had been no bar to conversion into the orthodox
fold, as attested by the Heliodorus column.
Notes
- Suvari
Jaiswal, The Origin and Development
of Vaisnavism (New Delhi: Munsiram
Manoharlal, 1980), p.116
- A.L.
Basham, ed., A Cultural History of
India (London: Clarendon Press, 1974),
p. 431.
- Journal
of the Royal Asiatic Society (London:
JRAS, Pub., 1909) pp.1053-54.
- Ibid
- Ibid
- Kunja
Govinda Goswami, A Study of Vaisnavism
(Calcutta: Oriental Book Agency, 1956)
p.6.
- A.L.
Basham, The Wonder That Was India
3rd ed.( Oxford: Taplinger
Pub. Co,1967), p.60.
- Steven
J. Gelberg, ed., Hare Krsna Hare Krsna
( New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1983),
p.117.
- Jaiswal,
Op. Cit., p.2
- Ahmad
H. Dani, Alberuni's India (Lexhore,
India: Univ. of Islamabad, 1973), p.37.
(Adapted
and reprinted from Clarion Call Magazine
with permission.)
