The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s5.164

c10.s5.164

The other explanation is that -hia is the first syllable of Yavanas, 'IάFονες, and that Ta-hia means Greeks.⁷ One might well enquire how Chang-k'ien came to hear either of the Sanscrit word Yavana or of the archaic Greek word 'IάFονες; but in fact, had he somehow managed to get at a word for what we call ‘Greek’, what he would have got, as his compatriot Wen-chung did a little later, would have been ’Ιωνικός (Yonaka) in some form (pp. 417sq.), and he would have transliterated this into Yung-kiu (Jong-kü, Jong-k’ut) as Wen-chung did (pp. 340 sq.).