1874.] Rajendralala Mitra —The Yavanas of Sanskrit Writers. 
255 
these fallen tribes. The word Mlechcliha is also applied to these de¬ 
graded persons.* 1 
The Mahabharata says: “ Other three outcaste classes are the Chan- 
dala, the Vratya, and the Yaidya, begotten by a S'udra on females of the 
Brahman, Kshatriya and Vaisya castes respectively.”f In another place 
it states : “ These tribes of Kshatriyas, viz., S'akas, Yavanas, Kambojas, Dra- 
vidas, Kalindas, Pulindas, Us'inaras, Kolisarpas and Mahisakas, have become 
Yrislialas from seeing no Bralimanas.”J Elsewhere it describes the Yava¬ 
nas to be the descendants of Turvashu, the second son of Yajati, and grand¬ 
son of Nahusa.§ These descendants were degraded for neglect of filial 
duty. The tribes in question though degraded were, however, not altoge¬ 
ther left out of the pale of Bralimanical institutions, and Dr. Muir quotes a 
long passage from the Mahabharata to show what they were required to 
do by way of religious observance and social duty. || 
The Vishnu Purana follows the Mahabharata very closely, and in de¬ 
scribing the boundary of India (Bharata-varsha) says, “ Its eastern border is 
occupied by the Kiratas, and the western by Yavanas, while the middle is 
inhabited by Kshatriyas, Yaisyas, and S ; udras, engaged in their several 
fixed occupations of sacrifice, war, trade, &c.’ ,# j[ 
Adverting to a story of war between Yis'vamitra and the Haihayas and 
the Talajanghas, it adds that the Yavanas were punished by having their heads 
shaven, a characteristic mark which, according to some, they retained after¬ 
wards ; but this cannot be predicated of the Ionian Greeks. The Yavanas 
are mentioned in several other places in the Yishnu Purana, but not in a 
way to indicate who they were. 
The Yishnu Purana’s location of the Yavanas on the north-western 
border of India may be accounted for by supposing that the work 
was written after the occupation of Afghanistan by the Greeks ; but the 
accounts of the Yavanas given in Manu’s Institutes and the Mahabha¬ 
rata refer obviously to neighbouring races, and cannot be connected with 
the Greeks, whether Asiatic or European. Certain it is that beyond the 
phonetic similitude of the name, there is nothing to justify the assumption 
that the works in question intended the Greeks of Asia Minor. 
The Mahabharata, however, has a legend on the origin of certain Yava¬ 
nas which is of importance in connexion with the present enquiry. Accord- 
* Haug’s Aitareya Brahmana. The Mlechclilias were, however, originally a separate 
tribe like the Yavanas. 
f Anusasana Parva, line 2621. Apud Muir’s Sanskrit Texts, 2nd ed., I., p. 481. 
X Ibid., p. 482. 
§ Adi Parva. Sec. 85, verse 8533. 
|| Sanskrit Texts, 2nd ed., I., p. 484. 
T Wilson’s Vishnu Purana, II. 37. 
