page_title: Yona
section_title: Sanchi
hierarchical_section_title: Yona / History / Other references / Sanchi
caption_attribution_description: English: Crop and formatting of attached file. Describes foreigners, probably Indo-Greeks worshipping the Stupa at Sanchi. According to the relief, the scene is taking place at the Southern Gateway of Stupa No1, the main entrance to the main Stupa. Many of the instruments are similar to this Hellenistic frieze from Jamal Ghari in Gandhara.
context_page_description: The word Yona in Pali and the Prakrits, and the analogue "Yavana" in Sanskrit, are words used in Ancient India to designate Greek speakers. "Yona" and "Yavana" are transliterations of the Greek word for "Ionians", who were probably the first Greeks to be known in the East.
  Both terms appear in ancient Sanskrit literature. Yavana appears for instance, in the Mahabharata, while Yona appears in texts such as the Sri Lankan chronicle Mahavamsa.
  The Yona are mentioned in the Ashoka inscriptions, along with the Kambojas, as two societies where there are only nobles and slaves.
  Examples of direct association of these terms with the Greeks include:
  The mention of the "Yauna" in the Persepolis Administrative Archives.
  The mention of the "Yona king Aṃtiyoka" in the Edicts of Ashoka
  The mention of the "Yona king Aṃtalikitasa" in the Heliodorus pillar in Vidisha
  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".
  The mention of Alexandria on the Caucasus, "the city of the Yonas" in the Mahavamsa, Chapter 29.
context_section_description: Some of the friezes of Sanchi also show devotees in Greek attire.  The men are depicted with short curly hair, often held together with a headband of the type commonly seen on ancient Greek coinage. The clothing too is Greek, complete with tunics, capes and sandals. The musical instruments are also quite characteristic, such as the double flute called aulos. Also visible are carnyx-like horns. They are all celebrating at the entrance of the stupa. These men would be foreigners from north-west India visiting the stupa, possibly Mallas, Indo-Scythians or Indo-Greeks.
  Three inscriptions are known from Yavana  donors at Sanchi, the clearest of which reads "Setapathiyasa Yonasa danam" ("Gift of the Yona of Setapatha"), Setapatha being an uncertain city.
caption: Foreigners on the Northern Gateway of Stupa I.
exif: {}