Yona

The word "Yona" in the Pali language, and the analogues "Yavana" in Sanskrit, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Tamil; and "Javanan" in Bengali, are words used in ancient India to designate Greek speakers. "Yona" and "Yavana" are both transliterations of the Greek word for "Ionians" (Homeric Greek: Iāones, Ancient Greek: *Iāwones), who were probably the first Greeks to be known in the East.