The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c7.s6.47

v1.c7.s6.47

The loss of the northern provinces of the Sātavāhana kingdom cannot be dated with certainty. An inscription from Besnagar, near Bhilsā, records the erection of a stone column in honour of Vāsudeva by Heliodorus, son of Dio, an inhabitant of Takṣaśilā.² He was an ambassador from the Great King Antialkidas to King Kāsīputra Bhāgabhadra, then in the fourteenth year of his reign. Besides revealing the diplomatic relations between Takṣaśilā and Vidiśā, the inscription is clear that the kingdom of Vidiśā had passed from the hands of the Sātavāhanas. The inscription does not state when this transference occurred. It is, however, clear that King Kāsīputra Bhāgabhadra was the gainer and that he had been king for fourteen years at the time of the embassy of Heliodorus.