148 erik seldeslachts
“Greek” is to be distinguished from yavana, which no longer meant
“Greek” as in Sanskrit, from which the word is a loan, but “Greek of
high civil or military rank”, then “foreigner of high rank” in general,
and ultimately “foreign military man, mercenary”.^82 Thus, the men of
the inscriptions may have been Graeco-Roman or other Western merce-
naries. Amazingly, two of them, Cia and Irila of the Gata-people, who
clearly carry non-Indian names, are recognisable as Goths, a Germanic
people at that time probably living in what is now Poland.^83 One man
mentioned in one of the inscriptions, is called a Yonaka, and he thus
probably is a real Greek in spite of his Indian name Indrgnidatta. He
hailed from Datmitra, which probably is present-day Termez on the
Oxus, at the same time a Greek foundation and an important early
Buddhist centre in Central Asia, as we have seen.
There is also a lot of literary and epigraphical evidence for the
presence of Indian traders and other visitors, even whole communities,
in Armenia, the northern Black Sea area, Socotra, Arabia, the Red
Sea area, and across the Mediterranean. Indians are met with from
Alexandria to Athens, and from Antioch in Syria to Tarragona in Spain.
One, however, looks in vain for something speci cally Buddhistic about
these people, whereas it is often possible to clearly identify Hindu ele-
ments. Attempts at identifying some Indian visitors as Buddhists are
unconvincing, as is the case with the old ascetic Zarmanokh gas, who
in 20 BC threw himself on a funeral pyre on the market in Athens,
burning himself alive.^84
During the reign of emperor Claudius (41–54 AD), the king of
Taprobane (Sri Lanka) sent a delegation to Rome consisting of four
men under the leadership of a certain Racchias.^85 An echo of this event
is presumably preserved in a commentary on the Pli text Mahvasa
informing us that king Bhtikbhaya (38–66? AD) sent out ships to
Romanukkharaha or the Roman Empire.^86 From Racchias the Romans
learned a lot about the island, but whereas this island belonged to the
(^82) Laeuchli 1986, pp. 207–213, 217. The semantic in uence of another Sanskrit
yavana- “keeping away; averting” may have played a role in this process.
(^83) Konow 1912; Mayrhofer 1959.
(^84) Cassius Dio, Historiae Romanae 54.9.8; Plutarchus, Vita Alexandri 69.7; Strabo,
Geographica 15.1.73. As an explanation for the name Zarmanokh gas, Lévi 1891,
pp. 211–212 unconvincingly suggested *ramaakya-, which he strangely understood
as “moine de Çâkya”. 85
Plinius, Naturalis historia 6.84–91; cf. Schwarz 1975, pp. 189–190.
(^86) Mahvasa k 630 on Mahvasa 34.46–47; cf. Schwarz 1974; 1975, p. 190.