EVEN THE ANCIENT GREEKS WERE HINDUS !!!!!!
ravimpillay
The Heliodorus Column
An archaeological discovery proves that there were western followers
of Vedic principles twenty-two centuries ago
By Jack Hebner & Steven Rosen
Heliodorus was a Greek ambassador to India in the second century B.C.
Few details are known about the diplomatic relations between the
Greeks and the Indians in those days, and still less is know about
Heliodorus. But that the column he erected at Besnagar in central
India about 113 B.C.(1). is considered one of the most important
archaeological finds on the Indian subcontinent.
It is known that Heliodorus was sent to the court of King Bhagabhadra
by Antiakalidas, the Greek king of Taxila. The kingdom of Taxila was
part of the Bactrian region in northwest India, conquered by Alexander
the Great in 325 B.C. By the time of Antialkidas, the area under Greek
rule included what is today Afghanistan, Pakistan and Punjab.(2)
The column erected by Heliodorus first came to notice in 1877, during
an archaeological survey by General Cunningham. The inscription,
however, went unnoticed, because of the pillar's thick coating of red
lead paste. It had been the custom of pilgrims who had worshipped
there to smear the column with vermillion paste. The column,
Cunningham deduced from its shape, was from the period of the Imperial
Guptas (3) (A.D. 300-550). Thirty-two years later, however, when the
inscription was brought to light, it became clear that the monument
was several centuries older. (4)
In January 1901, a Mr. Lake discerned what he thought was some
lettering on the lower part of the column, and removal of some
vermillion paste proved him right. Dr. J.H. Marshall, who was
accompanied by Mr. Lake, described the discovery in the Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society in 1909. Cunningham, Marshall explained, had
been mistaken about the age of the column and "could little have
dreamt of the value of the record which he just missed discovering." A
glance at the few letters exposed was all that was needed to show that
the column was many centuries earlier than the Gupta era. This was,
indeed, a surprise to me, but a far greater one was in store, when the
opening lines of the inscription came to be read." (5)
A reproduction of the inscription, along with the transliteration and
translation of the ancient Brahmi text, is given here as it appeared
in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.
1) Devadevasu Va[sude]vasa Garudadhvajo ayam
2) Karito ia Heliodorena bhaga
3) Vatena Diyasa putrena Takhasilakena
4) Yonadatena agatena maharajasa
5) Amtalikitasa upa[m]ta samkasam-rano
6) Kasiput[r]asa [Bh]agabhadrasa tratarasa
7) Vasena [chatu]dasena rajena vadhamanasa
" This Garuda-column of Vasudeva (Visnu), the god of gods, was erected
here by Heliodorus, a worshipper of Vishnu, the son of Dion, and an
inhabitant of Taxila, who came as Greek ambassador from the Great King
Antialkidas to King Kasiputra Bhagabhadra, the Savior, then reigning
prosperously in the fourteenth year of his kingship."
1) Trini amutapadani-[su] anuthitani
2) nayamti svaga damo chago apramado
"Three immortal precepts (footsteps)..when practiced lead to heaven-
self restraint, charity, conscientiousness."
From the inscriptions it is seems clear Heliodorus was influenced by
Vedic principles that he could be considered to be a Vaisnava, a
follower or worshipper of Visnu. Professor Kunja Govinda Goswami of
Calcutta University concludes that Heliodorus " was well acquainted
with the texts dealing with the Bhagavat [Vaisnava] relgion." (6)
To our knowledge, Heliodorus is the earliest Westerner on record to
adopt Vedic principles. But some scholars, most notably A.L. Basham
(7) and Thomas Hopkins, are of the opinion that Heliodorus was not the
only Greek to adopt such principles. Hopkins, chairman of the
department of religious studies at Franklin and Marshall College, has
said " Heliodorus was presumably not the only foreigner who converted
to Vaisnava devotional practices -- although he might have been the
only one who erected a column, at least one that is still extant.
Certainly there must have been many others." (8)
It is also interesting to note that the Heliodorus column has other
historical merits. Around the turn of the century, a number of
Indologists (Weber, Macnicol, and others) had noted " points of
similarity' between the Vaisnava philosophy of unalloyed devotion and
Christian doctrine. They had argued that Vaishnavism (worship of Visnu
and Krsna) must have been an offshoot of Christianity, and cited the
similarity between stories about Krsna and about Christ to further
support their claim.(9) But the discovery of the inscription on the
Heliodorus column laid their speculations to rest. Here was conclusive
archaeological proof that the Vaisnava tradition antedated
Christianity by at least two hundred years.
The column also struck down another popular notion. For centuries it
was a common belief among scholars that India's orthodox tradition did
not accept converts. An Islamic historian, Abu Raihan Alberuni, who
went to India in A.D. 1017, tried to explain in his book Indica why
the Indian orthodoxy did not admit foreigners. Alberuni suggested that
the practice developed only after the Moslem incursion into India,
sometime after A.D. 674.(10) Antagonism between the Moslems and Hindus
seems to be the main reason behind the non conversion practice. For
many centuries prior to Moslem presence, however, there had been no
bar to conversion into the orthodox fold, as attested by the
Heliodorus column.
Notes
1. Suvari Jaiswal, The Origin and Development of Vaisnavism (New
Delhi: Munsiram Manoharlal, 1980), p.116
2. A.L. Basham, ed., A Cultural History of India (London: Clarendon
Press, 1974), p. 431.
3. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (London: JRAS, Pub., 1909)
pp.1053-54.
4. Ibid
5. Ibid
6. Kunja Govinda Goswami, A Study of Vaisnavism (Calcutta: Oriental
Book Agency, 1956) p.6.
7. A.L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India 3rd ed.( Oxford:
Taplinger Pub. Co,1967), p.60.
8. Steven J. Gelberg, ed., Hare Krsna Hare Krsna ( New York: Grove
Press, Inc., 1983), p.117.
9. Jaiswal, Op. Cit., p.2
10. Ahmad H. Dani, Alberuni's India (Lexhore, India: Univ. of
Islamabad, 1973), p.37.
(Adapted and reprinted from Clarion Call Magazine with permission.)
tripur...@yahoo.com
> The Heliodorus Column
>
> An archaeological discovery proves that there were western followers
> of Vedic principles twenty-two centuries ago
It is quite possible as the "out of India theory" says, Greeks moved
from Scythian areas to present day Greece. Thus Greeks even spoke of
classes akin to varnas! I think is was Plato's Republic. I am not sure
but have to check. Mithra is from vedic concept. Zeus from Dyaus.Many
more. They were branded "pagans" and Churchianity was substituted