A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c9.s2.1

c9.s2.1

A detached pillar standing to the north-east of Besnagar has been invested with special interest by the recent discovery of a long-concealed inscription on the base,² which records the erection of the monument in honour of Vishnu by Heliodoros, son of Dion, envoy from the great King Antalkidas of Taxila to a local prince. Antalkidas is supposed to have reigned about 170 b.c. The inscription states that the column was crowned by an image of Garuda, the monstrous bird sacred to the god, but no such image is now visible. Cunningham found, lying close by, a square pinnacle, 2 feet 7 inches in height, formed in the shape of a fan-palm, which he supposed to belong to the column. If it does, the fan-palm capital must be of later, perhaps Gupta date, and substituted for the original Garuda capital. It is known that in the fourteenth century Sultan Fīrōz Tughlak replaced the sculptures crowning the Asoka columns which he moved by ornaments of his own design, and earlier Hindu kings may have done likewise. The fan-palm capital, whatever be its age, is unique. It is