Bhagabhadra

Bhagabhadra was one of the kings of the Indian Shunga dynasty. He ruled in north, central, and eastern India around 110 BCE. Although the capital of the Shungas was at Pataliputra, he was also known to have held court at Vidisha. It is thought that the name Bhagabhadra also appears in the regnal lists of the Shungas in the Puranic records, under the name Bhadraka, fifth ruler of the Shungas.

He is best known from an inscription at the site of Vidisha in central India, the Heliodorus pillar, in which contacts with an embassy from the Indo-Greek king Antialcidas is recorded, and where he is named "Kasiputra Bhagabhadra, the Saviour, son of the princess from Benares":

"Devadevasa Va [sude]vasa Garudadhvajo ayam

karito i[a] Heliodorena bhaga-

vatena Diyasa putrena Takhasilakena

Yonadatena agatena maharajasa

Amtalikitasa upa[m]ta samkasam-rano

Kasiput[r]asa [Bh]agabhadrasa tratarasa

vasena [chatu]dasena rajena vadhamanasa"

"This Garuda-standard of Vasudeva (Krishna or Vishnu), the God of Gods

was erected here by the devotee Heliodoros,

the son of Dion, a man of Taxila,

sent by the Great Greek (Yona) King

Antialkidas, as ambassador to

King Kasiputra Bhagabhadra, the Savior

son of the princess from Benares, in the fourteenth year of his reign."

(Archaeological Survey of India, Annual Report (1908-1909))

This inscription is important in that it tends to validate that the Shungas ruled in the area of Vidisa around 100 BCE. This is also corroborated by some artistic realization on the nearby Sanchi stupa thought to belong to the period of the Shungas. Altogether, three Shunga pillars have also been found in the area.