History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c19.331

v2.c19.331

*Yavana.* According to the view of some mentioned in Gaut. IV. 17 he is a pratiloma caste sprung from a śūdra male and a kṣatriya woman. According to Manu X. 43-44 Yavanas were originally kṣatriyas reduced to the status of śūdras (vide under khasa above p. 79). In the Mahābhārata Yavanas are almost always associated with Śakas and several other non-Aryan tribes; vide Sabhā. 32. 16-17, Vanaparva 254. 18 (as inhabiting the west), Udyoga 19. 21, Bhīṣma 20. 13, Droṇa 93. 42 and 121. 13, Karṇa 73. 19, Śānti 65. 13. From Strīparva 22. 11 it appears that Jayadratha (king of the countries of Sindhu and Sauvīra) had Kāmboja and Yavana women in his harem. Pāṇini (IV. 1. 59) derives the word Yavanānī from Yavana and a vārtika on that sūtra adds that Yavanānī means the *lipi* (the written alphabet) of the Yavanas. Patañjali in his Mahābhāṣya (on Pāṇ. II. 4. 10) indicates that he was prepared to regard Yavanas and Śakas as śūdras but as outside Āryāvarta. Aśoka in Rock Edicts V and XIII refers to the Yonas and Kambojas as nations on the borders of his empire. The Viṣṇupurāṇa IV. 3. 21 describes that the Yavanas shaved the head and also the beard, the Śakas tonsured their heads only, the Pāradas allowed the hair on the head to grow long and the Pahlavas grew beards and that all became Mlecchas because they gave up their original dharmas and because brāhmaṇas also left them.