Thread by @Aabhas24

1/n #Heliodorus pillar, erected at Besnagar around 2.134 kybp (113 BCE).

It was raised by Heliodorus, an ambassador of the Indo-#Greek king Antialcidas from #Taxila.

He called it the Garuda Pillar, in honor of Vāsudeva #Vishnu (#Krishna )

2/n The interpretation of #Heliodorus stambha is:

"it symbolizes joining earth, space and swarg, thereby bringing connotation the "cosmic axis" by expressing the cosmic totality of the Vāsudeva, Supreme Deity. "

Source: Approaches to Iconology, Vol 4-6, Hans Gerhard Kippenberg

3/n The inscriptions of #Heliodorus stambha is very interesting written in Brahmi script (Sunga period), language being Central-western epigraphic Prakrit, with Sanskritized spellings (Richard Solomon).

It praises Vāsudeva, the God of Gods & has verse from Mahabharata.

4/n The insertion shown on right side of illustration is showing inscription recorded by rubbing.

On the left hand side we have translations referred from Archaeological Survey of India, Annual report 1908-1909, Pg 129

5/n During the surveys, the Garuda capital of the #Heliodorus pillar wasn't found. But experts claim that it had already been excavated by Cunningham, but was unaware of the Garuda attribution of the stambh and was moved to the Gwalior Museum.

6/n Experts say that a statue fragment in the Gwalior Museum, composed of bird's feet holding a Naga, with the tail end resting on a portion of a vedika, may correspond to the lost Garuda capital of the Heliodorus pillar.

Sources in image

7/n As per Huntington,the Garuda capital on the Heliodorus pillar was imitated in the one at portable Garuda standard illustrated at Bharhut.

Source:The Art of Ancient India:Buddhist,Hindu,Jain by Susan Huntington .

Image: Relief of a portable Garuda pillar, Bharhut(100 BCE)

8/n The inscription (A34) in Brahmi script next to the relief of the Garuda pillar at Bharhut reads:

"The first pillar (is) the gift of Chāpadevāyā, the wife of Revatimita, from Vedisa"

Source: CORPUS INSCRIPTIONS INDICARUM VOL II PART II, H Luders (1963)

9/n As per the latest archaeological excavations ( 1963-1965), the #Heliodorus pillar was a part of an ancient elliptical Mandir (refer image).

Source: THE HELIODORUS PILLAR—A FRESH APPRAISAL, BY JOHN IRWIN ( AARP—ART & ARCHAEOLOGY RESEARCH PAPERS—DECEMBER 1974 ) by M. D. Khare

10/n This Vāsudeva Mandir (plan in image) had all components like garbhagriha, pradakshinapatha, antarala and dates back to second half of 1st millennium BC.

Hence as per archaeological records Mandir Tradition was part Bharat way before Mauryans.