Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect c8.119

c8.119

The most important chronological datum is furnished by the mention of *Yavana*.¹ *Yavana*, or Yona was a term used in ancient India to denote the Greeks. In Aśoka's Rock Edict XIII Antiochos is called a *Yonarāja*. In the Besnagar Pillar Inscription Heliodoros, the ambassador of Antialkidas, is called a *Yonadūta*. We know from the cuneiform inscriptions of the Achaemenian Kings of Persia that they had no other name for the Greeks but *Ya-u-na*.² This Persian form of the name *Yavana* was not unknown to the Hindus :—