The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c30.s3.19

v1.c30.s3.19

The only Yavana king whose name has yet been found on a purely Indian monument is Antialcidas. The inscription on a stone column at Besnagar, near Bhīlsa in the Gwalior State, records that the column was erected in honour of Kṛishṇa (Vāsudeva) by the Yavana ambassador Heliodorus, son of Dio, an inhabitant of Takshaçilā, who had come from the Great King Antialcidas to King Kāçīputra Bhāgabhadra then in the fourteenth year of his reign. The inscription is full of interest. It testifies to the existence of diplomatic relations between the Yavana king of Takshaçilā and the king of Vidiçā (Bhīlsa); and it proves that already at this period some of the Yavanas had adopted Indian faiths, for Heliodorus is styled 'a follower of Vishṇu' (*bhāgavata*)².