1874.] Bajendralala Mitra —The Yavanas of Sanskrit Writers. 
247 
Muhammadans trod in the steps of the Greeks, they became the chief Mlechas, 
consequently Yavanas. Yavana, however, never denotes an Arab as such, 
neither formerly nor now-a-days ; it is- never a name for a nation . The 
only nation called Yavanas were the Greeks.To what extent this asser¬ 
tion is founded on fact, and how much on mere hardihood of assertion, will 
be evident from the following remarks : 
Of the arguments above set forth, the first is by far the most taking 
with the public. The similarity of sound of the four words quoted 
is so close, that it cannot but produce an impression in favour of the theory 
that they are identical, and have a common meaning ; but it is at the same 
time the weakest; for modern philology does not recognise phonetic simili¬ 
tude to be of any use in an argument of this kind. The similitude must 
be supported by satisfactory proof of the relationship of the roots from 
which the words are derived, before it can be used as an argument of any 
weight in support of their identity. But even after the identity of the roots 
from which the words in the different languages have been produced is proved, 
the question would remain open, as to how far the secondary meaning of 
those words had always been the same everywhere, and until that can be 
done, no definite conclusion can be arrived at. It is necessary, therefore, 
to look into the history of the words in the different languages in which 
they occur, before any attempt can be made to prove that they have 
alwaj^s indicated one single nation and no other. 
Now, the oldest form of Ionia is “ Uinim,” which, on the monu¬ 
ments of the Ptolemies, is supposed to be used “ to designate the Greek peo¬ 
ple ;”f but in older records, such as the monuments of the eighteenth dynasty 
under Tutmosis III, and IV, and Amenophis III, the same term occurs to 
indicate the foreign subjects of the Pharaohs, i. e. races other than Egypt¬ 
ians. The term is represented by a group of six symbols, of which the three 
upper ones, representing papyrus plants, signify Northern or Lower Egypt, 
and the three lower ones, representing baskets, mean “all,” which is “a 
comprehensive designation of the people settled in different groups and 
bands.Putting the two significations together, the natural inference is, 
that the term or group of symbols was used to indicate foreigners settled 
in Egypt, the bulk of whom were maritime people from the Ionian isles 
and the sea-board of Asia Minor, i. e., Greeks, Phoenicians, and others. 
Curtius supposes that the Greeks alone were always meant § ; but to apply 
the term exclusively to the Greeks, it would be necessary to show that at 
* Brihat Sanhita, p. 32. 
f Curtius, Hist. Greece, Ward’s Translation, I, p. 45. 
J Ibid., loc. cit. 
§ Ibid., p. 46. 
