Столб Хелиодора в Видише: Посвящение Васудеве и космическая ось.

C. 113 BCE column in Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, India

The Heliodorus pillar is a stone column that was erected around 113 BCE in central India in Besnagar (near Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh). The pillar was called the Garuda standard by Heliodorus, referring to the deity Garuda. The pillar is commonly named after Heliodorus, who was an ambassador of the Indo Greek king Antialcidas from Taxila, and was sent to the Indian ruler Bhagabhadra. A dedication written in Brahmi script was inscribed on the pillar, venerating Vāsudeva (krishna), the Deva deva the "God of Gods" and the Supreme Deity. The pillar also glorifies the Indian ruler as "Bhagabhadra the savior". The pillar is a stambha which symbolizes joining earth, space and heaven, and is thought to connote the "cosmic axis" and express the cosmic totality of the Deity. The pillar was discovered by Alexander Cunningham in 1877. Two major archaeological excavations in the 20th century have revealed the pillar to be a part of an ancient Vāsudeva temple site.

The pillar was first discovered by Alexander Cunningham in 1877 near the ancient city of Besnagar in neighbourhood of Vidisha in central India. Besnagar was founded near the confluence of Betwa River and Halali River (formerly, Bais River and the basis for "Bes" nagar). The fertile region was historically important because it was on the trade route between the northern Gangetic valley, the Deccan and the South Indian kingdoms of the subcontinent. The Besnagar site is at the northeastern periphery of the confluence, and close to Sanchi and Udayagiri, both ancient and of significance to Buddhism and Hinduism. Cunningham, an avid British archaeologist credited with many discoveries of ancient sites on the subcontinent, saw no inscription due to the thick crust surrounding the pillar. He nevertheless sensed its historical significance from the shape and the visible features such as the crowning emblem, carved fan, rosettes, the faceted symmetry merging into a round section. He also guessed there may be an inscription below the crust, and reported the pillar as, "the most curious and novel" of all his discoveries. Near the standing Besnagar pillar, Cunningham found the remains of a fan palm pinnacle, which he thought originally belonged to the pillar. Assuming that this broken part was part of the standing pillar, he sketched a composite version. A short distance away, Cunningham found a second pillar capital on the ground with an emblem in the form of a makara (mythical elephant crocodile fish composite). Later research showed that the fan palm pinnacle could not fit, and the discovery of the inscription on the pillar suggested that a Garuda emblem was crowning the structure.

Between 1909 and early 1910, nearly 30 years after the pillar's discovery, a small Indian and British archaeological team led by H H Lake revisited the site. After the thick red crust was cleaned out, they found Brahmi script inscriptions. John Marshall reported the discovered inscriptions, and to everyone's surprise, the longer inscription related to a Greek ambassador named Heliodorus of 2nd century BCE and the deity Vāsudeva. An additional smaller inscription on the pillar listed human virtues, later identified to be from a verse of the Mahabharata. The pillar and the unusual inscriptions attracted two larger archaeological excavations. The first was completed between 1913 and 1915, under Bhandarkar, but left incomplete because the priest blocked efforts citing rights to his home and compound walls his ancestors had built over the mound. The Heliodorus pillar is neither tapered nor polished like the ancient Ashokan pillars found in India. This was destroyed by a flood around 200 BCE. New soil was then added and the ground level raised to build a new second temple to Vāsudeva, with a wooden pillar (Garuda dhvaja) in front of the east facing elliptical shrine. This too was destroyed by floods sometime in the 2nd century BCE. In late 2nd century BCE, after some ground preparation, yet another Vāsudeva temple was rebuilt, this time with eight stone pillars aligned in the north south cardinal axis. Only one of these eight pillars have survived: the Heliodorus pillar.

The Heliodorus pillar, being dated rather precisely to the period of the reign of Antialkidas (approximately 115–80 BCE), is an essential marker of the evolution of Indian art during the Sunga period. It is, following the Pillars of Ashoka, the next pillar to be associated clearly with a datable inscription. A remaining fragment of the Garuda capital is located at the Gujari Mahal Museum in Gwalior.

Vāsudeva refers to "Krishna, son of Vasudeva", "Vāsudeva" in the lengthened form being a vṛddhi derivative of the short form Vasudeva, a type of formation very common in Sanskrit signifying "of, belonging to, descended from". The worship of Vāsudeva may have evolved from the worship of a historical figure belonging to the Vrishni clan in the region of Mathura. He was also depicted on the coinage of Agathocles of Bactria c. 190 180 BCE, which shows that he was already widely considered as a deity by that time, and probably as early as the 4th century according to literary evidence. At one point Vāsudeva Krishna came to be associated to the God Narayana Vishnu. Epigraphically, this association is confirmed by the Hathibada Ghosundi Inscriptions of the 1st century BCE. It is thought that "by the beginning of the Christian era, the worship of Vasudeva, Vishnu and Narayana amalgamated". As a third step, Vāsudeva Krishna was incorporated into the Chatur vyūha concept of successive emanations of the God Vishnu. Based on Helliodorus pillar evidence it has been suggested that Heliodorus is one of the earliest Westerners on record to convert to Vaishnavism whose evidence has survived. But some scholars, most notably A. L. Basham and Thomas Hopkins, are of the opinion that Heliodorus was not the earliest Greek to convert to Bhagavata Krishnaism. Hopkins, chairman of the department of religious studies at Franklin and Marshall College, has said, "Heliodorus was presumably not the earliest Greek who was converted to Vaishnava devotional practices although he might have been the one to erect a column that is still extant. Certainly there were numerous others including the king who sent him as an ambassador." Professor Kunja Govinda Goswami of Calcutta University concludes that Heliodorus "was well acquainted with the texts dealing with the Bhagavata religion." This may also have been an instance of a typically Greek religious practice: according to Harry Falk, it was a logical and normal practice for Greeks to make dedications to foreign gods, as they were just interested in appropriating their power, and this natural Greek behaviour cannot be construed as a "conversion to Hinduism".

According to Allan Dahlquist, an alternative interpretation of the inscription is possible. Shakyamuni Buddha too was called a Bhagavan, and Heliodorus originated from Taxila where Buddhism was strong. Later scholars have questioned Dahlquist's analysis and assumptions. Kuiper criticizes him for interpreting the dubious source of Megasthenes, ignoring all the "indications to the contrary", and dispute Dahlquist's treatment of the evidence. The Greek texts that describe ancient India, have numerous references that suggest the existence of Vishnu Krishna before the time of Heliodorus. For example, there is little doubt that Methora in ancient Greek texts is same as Mathura, Sourasenoi as Shurasenas, Herakles of India is Hari Krishna, Kleisobora is Krishna pura. Similarly, early Buddhist sources provide evidence of Krishna worship, such as the Niddesa which somewhat derogatorily mentions both Vāsudeva and Baladeva The Jataka tales too include a story about Krishna.

During the Besnagar site excavations by archaeologists Lake and Bhandarkar, a number of additional inscriptions were found such as one in Vidisha. These also mention Vaishnava related terms. In one of those inscriptions, is the mention of another Bhagavata installing a pillar of Garuda (vahana of Vishnu) at the "best temple of Bhagavat" after the king had ruled for twelve years. A pillar from nearby Buddhist Sanchi, Pillar 25, is thought to be contemporary with the Heliodorus pillar, and is also dated to the 2nd century BCE.