1874.] Bajendralala Mitra —The Yavanas of Sanskrit Writers. 
269 
or the Odyssey.”* 4 But having neither the “ etymological courage” of that 
gentleman, nor the historical intrepidity of some of his successors, I can 
make nothing of it. 
The Smritis refer to the Yavanas very frequently, and denounce associa¬ 
tion with them at table as highly sinful; but they afford no information which 
can he of use in identifying the Yavanas, except that they hold the Mleehchhas 
and Yavanas to be the same, and that expiations for associating with them 
should be alike. I shall, therefore, refrain from quoting from them. The 
word Yavana, in some sense or other, is also common enough in modern 
works ; but it is not worth while citing passages from them, as they cannot be 
adduced as proofs in any way. I believe what has been written above, will 
suffice to show that in Sanskrit literature, the word in question has been 
used, primarily to indicate a particular nation, or race, or tribe, on the west 
of Kandahar, and secondarily to designate the western races generally ; and 
that this interpretation will apply to every passage in Sanskrit works in 
which the word has been used, and that without a single exception. 
I will now turn to the second argument set forth at the beginning 
of this article. There is no question whatever as to the accuracy of that 
part of Prinsep’s reading of the As'oka edicts of Gfirnar and Dhauli, supported 
as it is by the concurrent testimony of Wilson’s reading of the Kapurda 
Giri inscription, in which Antiochus Tlieus of Syria is named a “ yona raja 
and that 1 yona’ is the Pali form of the Sanskrit Yavana, is evident from 
the repeated use of that term in the Pali Buddhistical annals of Ceylon 
in that sense. The only question, therefore, that has to be decided is whe¬ 
ther the word yona in the passage has been used specifically to mean a 
Greek, or generically as a man of the western nation P 
If we accept the first branch of the alternative, we find that in the 
thirteenth tabletf Antiyoko (Antiochus Theus, king of Syria) is described 
to be a Yona king; but Ptolemaiosj: (Turamayo), Antigonus (Antikona), 
Magas (Mako or Maga), and Alexander (Alikasunari) are not so called ; and 
this would show that Syria and the countries to the east of it as far as Afgha¬ 
nistan, the greater portion of which Antiochus owned, were embraced by the 
* Hall’s Vasavadatta, Preface, p. 12. 
f Journal, R.. As. Soe., XII., p. 225. 
J It is worthy of note here that if Turamaya he the correct Pali rendering of Pto- 
lemaios, Dr. Weber’s assumption of Maya, the Danava of the Maliabharata, being also a 
version of the same name, would require to be modified. The omission of the first two 
syllables of the name in Sanskrit cannot be easily accounted for. It is true that the 
learned Doctor writes Asura Maya ; but the first term is an adjective, and cannot be 
accepted as an integral part of the second, standing in the place of the first two 
syllables of Ptolemaios, For farther remarks on this subject see a note on page 25 of the 
first volume of my “ Antiquities of Orissa.” 
L I, 
