English: The Heliodorus pillar is a historically important stone column discovered in Besnagar, near Vidisha Madhya Pradesh India, at the confluence of two rivers. The pillar has two Brahmi script inscriptions, one of which states it was erected by a Indo-Greek ambassador Heliodorus (2nd century BCE) converted to a devotee of Vasudeva (Krishna, Vishnu). The second inscription is from the Mahabharata, and mentions the virtues of "restraint, renunciation and rectitude".

This image shows the cross section of the pillar after the first of two major excavations at the Besnagar site. It shows that this pillar was a replacement to even more ancient pillar. It also shows that almost one-fourth of the original pillar is below the modern era ground level, probably from floods and silt deposit.

The archaeological excavations have revealed that this was one of eight pillars that has survived, and the eight pillars were aligned along the north-south axis near a more ancient elliptical temple.

For more: John Irwin (1974), The Heliodorus Pillar at Besnagar, Puratattva, No. 8, pp. 166–172 (the plates are at the front of the journal volume).

Note: This is a photo of a 2-D image published in 1913. Therefore Wikimedia Commons PD-Art licensing guidelines apply. Any rights I have as a photographer is herewith donated to wikimedia commons under CC 4.0 license.