09-30-2008, 03:04 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-Pandyan+Sep 30 2008, 02:02 AM-->QUOTE(Pandyan @ Sep 30 2008, 02:02 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin-Ishwa+Sep 29 2008, 12:55 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ishwa @ Sep 29 2008, 12:55 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Neither the word Yavana nor the persons falling under that word have any remote connection with Ionians or Bactrian Greeks. The Yavanas are simply indigenous.
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Why were the Greco-Roman visitors of the Tamil kingdoms referred to as the <i>Yavanar</i>?
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The remark deals with the ancient use of the word Yavana in the Mahabharata. None of the 25 references are coupled with Indo-Greeks, nor the Pkt word Yauna.
However, in a later time when Greek kings after Alexander's conquest ruled over Bactria, Gandhara and Kandahar, these Greek Yonarajas or kings over the Yavanas and especially those born on their soil, were from then on seen by the Indians as Yavanas too. Consequently, the Seleucid overlord and other Greeks were, through these Indo-Greek Yonarajas with the new identity of Yavanas, also called a king over Yavanas. Yona/Yavana, since then, was transplanted to refer to the Graeco-Romans and foreigners from the west in general, like the Arabs later on (probably also through the word Yaman).
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Why were the Greco-Roman visitors of the Tamil kingdoms referred to as the <i>Yavanar</i>?
[right][snapback]88588[/snapback][/right]
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The remark deals with the ancient use of the word Yavana in the Mahabharata. None of the 25 references are coupled with Indo-Greeks, nor the Pkt word Yauna.
However, in a later time when Greek kings after Alexander's conquest ruled over Bactria, Gandhara and Kandahar, these Greek Yonarajas or kings over the Yavanas and especially those born on their soil, were from then on seen by the Indians as Yavanas too. Consequently, the Seleucid overlord and other Greeks were, through these Indo-Greek Yonarajas with the new identity of Yavanas, also called a king over Yavanas. Yona/Yavana, since then, was transplanted to refer to the Graeco-Romans and foreigners from the west in general, like the Arabs later on (probably also through the word Yaman).