According to the inscriptions, Pushyamitra Shunga was a devotee of which of the following Gods?

Correct — A. The inscriptional evidence that ties the Shunga period to a named personal god points to Vasudeva-Krishna.

The Besnagar (Vidisha) pillar, raised in the late second century BCE, carries a Garuda capital dedicated to Vasudeva, 'the god of gods'. Its donor, the Indo-Greek envoy Heliodorus, calls himself a Bhagavata and dates the pillar by the reign of the Shunga king Bhagabhadra.

Of the four gods offered, Krishna is the one with Shunga-era epigraphic backing, so option (a) is what the key marks.

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  Indra — Indra is the great god of the Rig Veda, but by the post-Mauryan centuries his cult had faded from donative inscriptions, and no Shunga record names him as a royal deity.
• (c)
  Rama — Rama worship as an organised devotional cult is attested far later. The Ayodhya inscription connected with Pushyamitra records Ashvamedha sacrifices, not a temple or dedication to Rama.
• (d)
  Shiva — Shiva dominates the epigraphy of later dynasties, and Shaiva dedications are plentiful from the Gupta period onward. The Shunga-period dedication at Besnagar is Vaishnava, not Shaiva.

The Shungas ruled central and northern India after Pushyamitra overthrew the last Mauryan, Brihadratha, in about 185 BCE. Their period is where two religious currents first show up side by side in stone.

One is Vedic Brahmanism, seen in the revival of the Ashvamedha, the horse sacrifice a king performed to assert sovereignty. The other is Bhagavatism, the early devotional worship of Vasudeva-Krishna as a supreme personal god.

The Besnagar pillar is the hinge document for the second, because it is dated, it names a Shunga king, and its donor is a foreigner who had adopted the cult.

Key facts

• The Heliodorus pillar stands at Besnagar near Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, and carries a Garuda capital dedicated to Vasudeva.
• Heliodorus describes himself in the inscription as a Bhagavata and as the envoy of the Indo-Greek king Antialcidas.
• The inscription dates itself by the reign of the Shunga king Kasiputra Bhagabhadra.
• Pushyamitra Shunga founded the dynasty in about 185 BCE after killing the last Mauryan ruler, Brihadratha.

Common traps

• Reading the Besnagar pillar as a Shunga royal dedication when the donor was Heliodorus, a Greek envoy.
• Treating Vedic Brahmanism and Bhagavata devotion as the same thing because both are pre-Gupta and Brahmanical.

No directly related past PYQ was found.