History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.176

v6.c82.176

⁷⁴³ म्लेच्छा हि यवनास्तेषु सम्यक् शास्त्रमिदं स्थितम् । ऋषिवत्तेऽपि पूज्यन्ते किं पुनर्देवविद् द्विजः ॥ बृहत्संहिता II 15 (Kern) Alberuni (Sachau, vol I. p. 23) refers to this verse. In पाणिनि IV. 149 twelve words (इन्द्रवरुण ० यवनमातुलाचार्याणामानुकू) are mentioned to most of which the affix आनी is added in the sense of 'wife' The word यवन is an exact reproduction of the word Ionia which was originally a strip of mountainous coast in Asia Minor about 20 to 30 miles broad There is nothing to show, as Western writers are fond of saying, that Pāṇini refers to Alexander and the Greeks that came with and after him. Miletus was in the 6th century B. C. the richest city in the Greek world In Pāṇini's days यवनानी meant the wife of a yavana while in Kātyāyana's days यवनानी meant only the yavana alphabet Later on all Greeks came to be called Ionians Vide Will Durant in 'Life of Greece' (1939) p 134, Sarton in 'A History of Science' p. 162.