The word Yona in Pali and the Prakrits, and the analogue Yavana in Sanskrit, were used in Ancient India to designate Greek speakers. "Yona" and "Yavana" are transliterations of the Greek word for "Ionians" (), who were probably the first Greeks to be known in India.
Both terms appear in ancient Sanskrit literature. Yavana appears, for instance, in the Mahabharata, while Yona appears in texts such as the Sri Lankan chronicle Mahavamsa.
The Yona are mentioned in the Ashoka inscriptions, along with the Kambojas, as two societies where there are only nobles and slaves.
Examples of direct association of these terms with the Greeks include: The mention of the "Yauna" in the Persepolis Administrative Archives (550–333 BC). The mention of the "Yona king Aṃtiyoka" in the Edicts of Ashoka (280 BCE) The mention of the "Yona king Aṃtalikitasa" in the Heliodorus pillar in Vidisha (110 BCE) King Milinda and his bodyguard of "500 Yonas" in the Milinda Panha. The description of Greek astrology and Greek terminology in the Yavanajātaka "Nativity of the Yavanas" (150 CE). The mention of Alexandria on the Caucasus, "the city of the Yonas" in the Mahavamsa, Chapter 29 (4th century CE).
In general, the words "Yoṇa" or "Yoṇaka" were the current Greek Hellenistic forms, while the term "Yavana" was the Indian word to designate the Greeks or the Indo-Greeks.The Greeks in Bactria and India by William Woodthorpe Tarn p.257
Comparable terms in the ancient world
This usage was shared by many of the countries east of Greece, from the Mediterranean to Sindh: Egyptians used the word ywnj-ꜥꜣ. In Arabic it is Yūnān. Assyrians used the word Iawanu. Babylonians used the word Yaman and Yamanaya. In Biblical Hebrew, the word was Yāwān (Modern Hebrew Yavan) Persians used the word Yauna from the Old Persian word for designating the Greeks, namely "Yauna" (literally 'Ionians', as they were the first Greeks with whom the Persians had extensive contact). The ancient Chinese exonym for modern-day Ferghana is "Dayuan", which may come from the term Yona.
History The usage of "Yona" and "Yavana, or variants such as "Yauna" and "Javana", appears repeatedly, and particularly in relation to the Greek kingdoms which neighboured or sometimes occupied the Punjab over a period of several centuries from the 4th century BCE to the first century CE, such as the Seleucid Empire, the Greco-Bactrian kingdom and the Indo-Greek kingdom. The Yavanar are mentioned in detail in Sangam literature epics such as Paṭṭiṉappālai, describing their brisk trade with the Early Cholas in the Sangam period.
After Alexander the Great's invasion, the Greek settlements had existed in eastern parts of Achaemenid Empire, northwest of India, as neighbours to the Kambojas. The references to the Yonas in the early Buddhist texts, and Menander I (), may be related to the same.
The earliest attested use of the word in India is by grammarian Pāṇini, (c. 5th century bc) in the form Yavanānī, which is taken by commentators to mean Greek script.
Role in Buddhism
Edicts of Ashoka (250 BC)
Some of the better-known examples are those of the Edicts of Ashoka (c. 250 BCE), in which the Emperor Ashoka refers to the Greek populations under his rule. Rock Edicts V and XIII mention the Yonas (or the Greeks) along with the Kambojas and Gandharas as a subject people forming a frontier region of his empire and attest that he sent envoys to the Greek rulers in the West as far as the Mediterranean, faultlessly naming them one by one.
In the Gandhari original of Rock XIII, the Greek kings to the West are associated unambiguously with the term "Yona": Antiochus is referred as "Amtiyoko nama Yonaraja" (lit. "The Greek king by the name of Antiochus"), beyond whom live the four other kings: "param ca tena Atiyokena cature 4 rajani Turamaye nama Amtikini nama Maka nama Alikasudaro nama" (lit. "And beyond Antiochus, four kings by the name of Ptolemy, the name of Antigonos, the name of Magas, the name Alexander").
In Buddhist Texts
Other Buddhist texts such as the Dipavamsa and the 1861 Sasana Vamsa reveal that after the Third Buddhist council, the elder monk (thero) Maharakkhita was sent to the "Yona country" and he preached Buddhism among the Yonas and the Kambojas, and that at the same time the Yona elder monk (thero) Dharmaraksita was sent to the country of Aparantaka in Western India also. Ashoka's Rock Edict XIII also pairs the Yonas with the Kambojas (Yonakambojesu) and conveys that brahmans and śramaṇas are found everywhere in his empire except in the lands of the Yonas and the Kambojas.
Mahavamsa The Mahavamsa or "Great Chronicle" of Sri Lanka refers to the thera Mahārakkhita being sent to preach to the Yona country, and also to the Yona thera Dhammarakkhita, who was sent to Aparanta ("the Western Ends").(Mahavamsa XII) It also mentions that Pandukabhaya of Anuradhapura set aside a part of his capital city of Anuradhapura for the Yonas.(Mahavamsa X)
Another Yona thera, Mahādhammarakkhita, is mentioned as having come from Alexandria on the Caucasus in the country of the Yonas, to be present at the building of the Ruwanwelisaya.(Mahawamsa XXIX)
Milindapanha Another example is that of the Milinda Panha (Chapter I), where "Yonaka" is used to refer to the great Indo-Greek king Menander (160–135 BC), and to the guard of "five hundred Greeks" that constantly accompanies him.
Invasion of India The Vanaparava of Mahabharata contains prophecies that "Mleccha kings of the Shakas, Yavanas, Kambojas, Bahlikas etc. shall rule the earth un-righteously in Kaliyuga ...".Mahabharata 3.188.34–36. This reference apparently alludes to chaotic political scenario following the collapse of the Maurya and Shunga Empires in northern India and its subsequent occupation by foreign hordes such as of the Yonas, Kambojas, Sakas and Pahlavas.
There are important references to the warring Mleccha hordes of the Shakas, Yavanas, Kambojas, the Pahlavas and others in the Bala Kanda of Valmiki's Ramayana.
Indologists like Dr H. C. Raychadhury, Dr B. C. Law, Dr Satya Shrava and others see in these verses the clear glimpses of the struggles of the Hindus with the mixed invading hordes of the barbaric Sakas, Yavanas, Kambojas, Pahlavas etc. from north-west.The Śakas in India, 1981, p 12, Satya Shrava; Journal, 1920, p 175, University of Calcutta. Department of Letters; India & Russia: Linguistic & Cultural Affinity, 1982, p 100, Weer Rajendra Rishi; Indological Studies, 1950, p 32, Dr B. C. Law; Political History of India from the Accession of Parikshit to the Coronation of Bimbisara, 1923, Page iii, Hemchandra Raychaudhuri; Political History of Ancient India, 1996, p 4, Raychaudhury; Indological Studies, 1950, p 4, Dr B. C. Law. The time frame for these struggles is 2nd century BCE downwards.Political History of Ancient India, 1996, pp 3–4.
The other Indian records prophecies the 180 BCE Yona attacks on Saket, Panchala, Mathura and Pataliputra, probably against the Shunga Empire, and possibly in defence of Buddhism: "After having conquered Saketa, the country of the Panchala and the Mathuras, the Yavanas, wicked and valiant, will reach Kusumadhvaja ("The town of the flower-standard", Pataliputra). The thick mud-fortifications at Pataliputra being reached, all the provinces will be in disorder, without doubt. Ultimately, a great battle will follow, with tree-like engines (siege engines)."Gargi-Samhita Paragraph 5, Yuga Purana. "The Yavanas will command, the Kings will disappear. (But ultimately) the Yavanas, intoxicated with fighting, will not stay in Madhadesa (the Middle Country); there will be undoubtedly a civil war among them, arising in their own country, there will be a terrible and ferocious war."Gargi-Samhita, Yuga Purana Chapter, No 7. The "Anushasanaparava" of the Mahabharata affirms that the country of Majjhimadesa was invaded by the Yavanas and the Kambojas who were later utterly defeated. The Yona invasion of Majjhimadesa ("middle country, midlands") was jointly carried out by the Yonas and the Kambojas. Majjhimadesa here means the middle of Greater India which then included Afghanistan, Pakistan and large parts of Central Asia.
Other references On the 110 BCE Heliodorus pillar in Vidisha in Central India, the Indo-Greek king Antialcidas, who had sent an ambassador to the court of the Shunga emperor Bhagabhadra, was also qualified as "Yona".
The Mahavamsa also attests Yona settlement in Anuradhapura in ancient Sri Lanka, probably contributing to trade between East and West.
Buddhist texts like Sumangala Vilasini class the language of the Yavanas with the Milakkhabhasa i.e. impure language.
Roman traders in Tamilakkam were also considered Yavanas.
Sanchi
Some of the friezes of Sanchi also show devotees in Greek attire. The men are depicted with short curly hair, often held together with a headband of the type commonly seen on ancient Greek coinage. The clothing too is Greek, complete with tunics, capes and sandals. The musical instruments are also quite characteristic, such as the double flute called aulos. Also visible are carnyx-like horns. They are all celebrating at the entrance of the stupa. These men would be foreigners from north-west India visiting the stupa, possibly Mallas, Indo-Scythians or Indo-Greeks."A guide to Sanchi" John Marshall. These "Greek-looking foreigners" are also described in Susan Huntington, "The art of ancient India", p. 100
Three inscriptions are known from Yavana donors at Sanchi, the clearest of which reads "Setapathiyasa Yonasa danam" ("Gift of the Yona of Setapatha"), Setapatha being an uncertain city.
Buddhist caves of Western India
In the Great Chaitya of the Karla Caves built and dedicated by Western Satraps Nahapana in 120 CE,World Heritage Monuments and Related Edifices in India, Volume 1 ʻAlī Jāvīd, Tabassum Javeed, Algora Publishing, 2008 p.42 there are six inscriptions made by self-described Yavana donors, who donated six of the pillars, although their names are Buddhist names.Some Early Dynasties of South India, by Sudhakar Chattopadhyaya p.83 They account for nearly half of the known dedicatory inscriptions on the pillars of the Chaitya.Epigraphia Indica Vol.18 p.326-328 and Epigraphia Indica Vol.7 [Epigraphia Indica Vol.7 p.53-54
3rd pillar of the left row: "(This) pillar (is) the gift of the Yavana Sihadhaya from Dhenukataka"Epigraphia Indica Vol.7 p.53-54 Inscription No.7Problems of Ancient Indian History: New Perspectives and Perceptions, Shankar Goyal – 2001, p.104 4th pillar of the left row: "Of Dhamma, a Yavana from Dhenukakata"Epigraphia Indica Vol.7 p.55-56 Inscription No.10 and Epigraphia Indica Vol.18 p.327 Inscription No.7 differ on the content of this inscription. Here, Epigraphia Indica Vol.7 was chosen, as Epigraphia Indica Vol.18 only mentions an inscription similar to that of pillar No.3, a possible mixup. 9th pillar of the left row: "(This) pillar (is) the gift of the Yavana Yasavadhana from Denukakata" 5th pillar of the right row: "This pillar is the gift of the Yavana Vitasamghata from Umehanakata"Epigraphia Indica Vol.18 p.326 Inscription No1 13th pillar of the right row: "(This) pillar (is) the gift of the Yavana Dhamadhaya from Denukakata"Epigraphia Indica Vol.18 p.326 Inscription No 4 15th pillar of the right row: "(This) pillar (is) the gift of the Yavana Chulayakha from Dhenukakata"Epigraphia Indica Vol.18 p.327 Inscription No6
The city of Dhenukakata is thought to be Danahu near the city of Karli. It is described by other donors in other inscriptions as a "vaniya-gama" (A community of merchants).
The Yavanas are also known for their donation of a complete cave at the Nasik Caves (cave No.17), and for their donations with inscriptions at the Junnar caves.
The Yonas and other northwestern invaders in Indian literature The Yavanas or Yonas are frequently found listed with the Kambojas, Sakas, Pahlavas and other northwestern tribes in numerous ancient Indian texts.