Yona

( 160 – 135 BCE ). inscription in Greek , "BASILEŌS SOTĒROS MENANDROU" lit. "of Saviour King Menander".]]

OLD WORLD USAGE

This usage was shared by many of the countries east of Greece , from the Mediterranean to India and China:

Egyptians used the word ''j-w-n(-n)-’''

Assyria ns used the word ''Iawanu''

Persians used the word ''Yauna'' or ''Yavanu''

In Biblical writings, the word was ''Yāwān''

In Arabic and Turkish it is ''Yunan''

The Han Chinese used the term "Great Yuan" ( Ta-Yuan ) to designate what were probably the descendants of Alexander The Great in the region of Ferghana , centered on his city of Alexandria Eschate (Hou Han Shu, Late Han History).

INDIAN REFERENCES

In Indian sources, the usage of the words "Yona", "Yauna", "Yonaka", "Yavana" or "Javana" etc appears repeatedly, and particularly in relation to the Greek kingdoms which neighboured or sometimes occupied the Indian sub-continent over a period of several centuries from the 4th Century BCE to the 1st Century CE , such as the Seleucid Empire , the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the Indo-Greek Kingdom .

Even long before Alexander 's invasion, the Greek settlements had existed in eastern parts of Achaemenid empire, north-west of India , as neighbors to the Iranian Kambojas . The references to the Yonas in the early Buddhist texts may be related with the same.

Role in Buddhism

Edicts of Ashoka (250 BCE)

at the time of king Ashoka ( 260 - 218 BCE ).]]
Some of the better known examples are those of the , The Name Of Antigonos , The Name Of Magas , The Name Alexander " )

Dipavamsa and Sasanvamsa

Other Buddhist texts such as the Dipavamsa and the Sasanvamsa reveal that after the Third Buddhist Council , the elder (thera) Mahárakkhita was sent to the Yona country and he preached Dharma among the Yonas and the Kambojas, and that at the same time the Yona elder (thera) 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 the Brahmana s and Sramana s are found everywhere in his empire except in the lands of the Yonas and the Kambojas.

Milindapanha

Another example is that of the Milinda Panha (Chap.I), where "Yonaka" is used to refer to the great Indo-Greek king Menander ( 160 – 135 BCE ), and to the guard of "500 hundred Greeks" that constantly accompanies him.

Invasion of India

The ''Vanaparava'' of Mahabharata contains verses in the form of prophecy complaining that "......Mlechha ( Barbaric ) kings of the Shakas, Yavanas, Kambojas, Bahlikas etc shall rule the earth (i.e India) un-rightously in Kaliyuga..." (MBH 3/188/34-36). This reference apparently alludes to chaotic political scenario following the collapse of Mauryan and Sunga Dynasties in northern India and its subsequent occupation by foreign Horde s of the Yavanas, Kambojas, Saka and Pahlavas etc.

There are important references to the warring ''Mleccha'' hordes of the Shakas, Yavanas, Kambojas, Pahlava s etc in the ''Bala Kanda'' of the Valmiki Ramayana also (1.54.21-23; 1.55.2-3).

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Yona