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The "Yona" Greek king of India Menander ( 160 – 135 BCE). Greek legend, "BASILEOS SOTHROS MENANDROY" lit. "Saviour King Menander".

This usage was shared by many of the country east of Greece, from the Mediterranean to India and China:

• Assyrians used the word “Iawanu”
• Persians used the word “Yauna” or “Yavanu”
• In Biblical writtings, the word was “Yavan” or “Jawan”
• In Arabic and Turkish it was “Junan”
• The Han Chinese used the term "Great Yuan" ( Ta-YuanFerghana) was one of the three advanced civilizations of Central Asia around 130 BCE, together with Parthia and Greco-Bactria ( Han Shu, Former Han Chinese Chronicles). The Ta-Yuan (, Ta-Yuan or Dawan, lit. Great Yuan”) were a people of Ferghana in Centra) to designate what were probably the descendants of Alexander the Greatbust of Alexander the Great Alexander III (late July, 356 BC June 10, 323 BC), King of Macedon ( 336 BC-323 BC), known as Alexander the Great was one of the most successful military commanders of the ancient world. Following the unification of the multipl in the region of Ferghana, centered on his city of Alexandria EschateAlexandria Eschate (Lit. Alexandria the Furthest”) was founded by Alexander the Great in 329 BCE as his most advanced base in Central Asia. It was established in the southwestern part of the Ferghana valley, on the southern bank of the river Syr Darya (an (Hou Han Shu, Late Han History).

In Indian sources, the usage of the words "Yona", "Yonaka" or "Yavana" appears repeatedly, and particularly in relation to the Greek kingdoms which neighboured or sometimes occupied the Indian sub-continent over a period of several centuries from the 4th century BCE to the 1st century CE, such as the Seleucid EmpireThe Seleucid Empire was one of several political states founded after the death of Alexander the Great, whose generals squabbled over the division of Alexander's empire. The partition of Alexander's empire (323-281 BC) Alexander the Great left a huge empi, the Greco-Bactrian kingdomThe Greco-Bactrians were a dynasty of Greek kings who controlled Bactria and Sogdiana, an area comprising today's northern Afghanistan and parts of Central Asia, the easternmost area of the Hellenistic world, from 250 to 125 BCE. Their expansion into nort and the Indo-Greek kingdom.

Some of the better known examples are those of the Edicts of Ashoka (c. 250 BCE), in which the Buddhist emperor Ashoka refers to the Greek populations under his rule, and explains he sent envoys to the Greek rulers in the West as far as the Mediterranean, faultlessly naming them one by one. Another example is that of the Milinda Panha (Chap.I), where "Yavana" is used to refer to the great Indo-Greek king Menander ( 160 – 135 BCE), and to the guard of “500 hundred Greeks” that constantly accompanies him.

Several references to the Greeks can also be found in ancient Indian literature. In the Mahabharata, they are described as "the all-knowing Yavanas" ("Sarvajnah Yavanah", Mahabharata VIII.45.36). Another Indian text explains that "The Yavanas are barbarians yet the science of astronomy originated with them and for this they must be reverenced like Gods" (Gargi-Samhita).

The terms "Yona", "Yonaka" or "Yavana" later took on a wider meaning to include all westerners visiting India.