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The word Yona in Pali and the Prakrits, and the analogue "Yavana" in Sanskrit are words used in the Ancient India to designate Greek speakers. "Yona" and "Yavana" are transliterations of the Greek word for "Ionians" (Homeric Greek: ''Ἰάoνες'', Ancient Greek: *''Ἰάϝoνες''), who were probably the first Greeks to be known in the East. The Yavanas are mentioned in the ''Majjhima Nikaya'', in which Gautama Buddha mentions to the Brahman Assalayana the existence of the Kamboja and Yona people who have only two castes, master or slave. Examples of direct association of these with the Greeks include: * The mention of the "Yona king Aṃtiyoka" in the Edicts of Ashoka (280 BCE) * The mention of the "Yona king Aṃtalikitasa" in the Heliodorus pillar in Vidisha (110 BCE) * King Milinda and his bodyguard of "500 Yonas" in the Milinda Panha. * The description of Greek astrology and Greek terminology in the ''Yavanajātaka'' "Nativity of the Yavanas" (150 CE). * The mention of Alexandria on the Caucasus, "the city of the Yonas" in the ''Mahavamsa'', Chapter 29 (4th century CE). ==Old World usage== This usage was shared by many of the countries east of Greece, from the Mediterranean to Sindh: * Egyptians used the word ''j-w-n(-n)-’''. * Assyrians used the word ''Iawanu''. * Persians used the word ''Yauna'' or ''Yavanu''. * Indians used the word ''Yavana'' in the ''Mahabharata'' and other historic texts. * It appears in the later Indian texts such as the ''Mahavamsa'' and other historic texts as ''Yona'' * In Ancient Hebrew writings the word was ''Yāvān'' (and still is, in modern Israeli Hebrew: יוון) * In modern Turkish, Persian, and Arabic language it is ''Yūnān'', derived from the same Old Persian word for designating the Greeks, namely "Yauna" (literally 'Ionians', as they were the first of the Greeks the Persians had firstly the most extensive encounters with) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Yona」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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