History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c24.s1.444.3

v2.c24.s1.444.3

In Kharavela's inscription also the form is Yavana (E. I. 20 p. 79). In the Mahābhārata the words Yavana and Śaka occur very frequently. Vide notes above on these words. In the Droṇaparva 119. 45-46 Yavana, Kamboja, Śaka, Śabara, Kirāta and Barbara are mentioned as one group fighting against Sātyaki. In Droṇa 119. 47-48 they are referred to as dasyus and as having long and flowing beards. In the Strīparva 22. 11 Jayadratha is said to have had Kamboja and Yavana women in his harem. The word Yavana is generally taken as referring to the Greeks. But there are dissenting voices also. Dr. Otto Stein in 'Indian Culture' denies that the word *ever* means Greeks and Dr. Tarn in his recent work on 'Greeks in Bactria and India' p. 254 argues that the Yavanas in the Nasik inscriptions were not Greeks but only Indian citizens of a Greek *polis*. The Śāntiparva 65. 17-22 prescribes for Yavanas, Śakas and similar tribes only the duties of obedience to parents and attendance on teachers and tending cattle and looking after agriculture, dedication of wells and making gifts to dvijas, *ahiṁsā*, *satya*, absence of fury, *śauca*, *adroha*, maintenance of wife and child. Atri VII. 2 puts the receiving of gifts from or eating the food of or having sexual intercourse with the women of Śakas, Yavanas, Kambojas, Bāhlīkas, Khaśas, Draviḍas on the same level with doing the same things with reference to naṭa, nartaka, śvapāka &c. Aparārka p.