A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.2199

c5.2199

YAVANAS. Greeks, ’Ιάονες, the Yavans of the Hebrew. The term is found in Pāṇini, who speaks of the writing of the Yavanas. The Purāṇas represent them to be descendants of Turvasu, but they are always associated with the tribes of the north-west frontier, and there can be no doubt that the Macedonian or Bactrian Greeks are the people most usually intended by the term. In the Bactrian Pāli inscriptions of King Priyadarsī the word is contracted to Yona, and the term Yona-rāja “is associated with the name of Antiochus, probably Antiochus the Great, the ally of the Indian prince Sophagasenas, about B.C. 210.” The Purāṇas characterise them as “wise and eminently brave.” They were among the races conquered by King Sagara, and “he made them shave their heads entirely.” In a later age they were encountered on the Indus by Pushpamitra, a Mauryan general, who dethroned his master and took the throne. In modern times the term has been applied to the Muhammadans.