Yavana
/jəˈvɑːnə/noun
An ancient Indian term originally referring to Greeks or Ionians and later used more broadly for foreigners from the West.
Did you know?Yavana is generally traced through Persian Yauna to Greek Iāones, meaning Ionians, showing how one ethnic name expanded across Asia to signify Greeks and eventually foreigners more broadly.
Etymological Timeline
8th–6th Century BCE
Greek
Ἰάονες (Iāones)
“Ionians, the Greek-speaking inhabitants of Ionia and related populations”
6th Century BCE
Old Persian
Yauna
“Ionians or Greeks, used in Achaemenid imperial inscriptions”
3rd Century BCE
Pali
Yona
“Greeks or peoples of the Hellenistic world”
2nd–1st Century BCE
Sanskrit
Yavana
“Greeks, especially western foreigners encountered by Indian societies”
Early Medieval Period
Sanskrit
Yavana
“A broader designation for foreigners, particularly people arriving from western regions”
Modern English
English
Yavana
“A historical Indian ethnonym for Greeks and, in later usage, Western foreigners”