[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [The Greeks in Bactria and India](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tarn-1938) › c12.29 # The Greeks in Bactria and India c12.29 The Greeks in Bactria and India c12.29 - **Language:** English ### [c12.29](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tarn-1938.c12.29) Yonaka also did not come through Achaemenid Persia,⁸ as it corresponds to nothing in classical Greek; it is not 'Ιωνικός (which incidentally does not mean Ionian), but implies a form 'Ιωνακός, unknown to classical Greek; and the appearance of the word is far too late for a borrowing from Persia, for no one would put Part I of the Pali Milinda earlier than the late second century B.C., and the Nasik cave inscription is probably not earlier than the refer to Greeks, and neither Lévi in \*Quid de Graecis\* nor Weber in \*Berlin SB\* 1890 pp. 907 \*sqq.\*, who give every mention of Yavanas they can find, gives any other instance of Yonaka. I thought I had discovered another in B. C. Law, \*Some Kshatriya tribes of ancient India\* 1923 p. 250, who among his ancient sources cites a passage containing the word Yonaka from a work called \*Sāsanavamsa\*; but I found that this work was written in Burma in 1861 (Winternitz II p. 176)—not the only time in this period that a modern work has been quoted by somebody as ancient authority. - [Previous: c12.28](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tarn-1938.c12.28) - [Next: c12.30](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tarn-1938.c12.30) - [Up: c12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tarn-1938.c12) ## Cites (3) - [Milindapañha](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.milindapanha) — Pāli - [Sāsanavaṃsa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada_postcanon.vamsa.sasanavamsa) — Paññāsāmi 1861, Pāli - [Nasik No. 16](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.deccan.satavahana.nasik-no-16*hultzsch1906) — Prakrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tarn-1938.c12.29](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tarn-1938.c12.29) · Pramāṇa