भारतीय इतिहास के ६ स्वर्णिम पृष्ठ (वीर सावरकर - विदेशी आक्रान्ताओं पर विजय गाथा)

days and celebrated a great festival. The Greeks performed a sacrifice and offered oblations to propitiate their Greek deities. 14. The Greek Gods resembled the Vedic ones very closely. Their names had undergone changes in pronunciation by corruption in course of time. The Greeks too performed sacrifices as the Indo-Aryans did, and offered oblations through the fire to their various deities. They were also called Ionians. ‘Lonian’ and ‘Yavan’ 15. It is likely that these Greeks were the descendants of Anu, the son of Yayati! One wonders if Anwayan was later on corrupted to Ionian. This bit of a guess must, however, be left to the research scholars. The fact remains that the Indians called these Greeks ‘Yavanas’ from the very beginning, as is seen from the Sanskrit literature. It is from the Greek word ‘Ionians’, that they came to be called ‘Yavans’ or ‘Yons’ in India. Buddha not heard of from Gandhar—Panchanad to Sindh 16. One more fact deserves mention here. The contemporary Greek writers have given in their books detailed descriptions of the varied life of the people from those parts of India where Alexander moved—from Gandhar to Panchanad (the Punjab) and, thence along both the banks of the Indus, to the very place where it flows into the sea. But throughout all these descriptions, not a single reference to either Lord Buddha or the Buddhistic cult or sect can be found, whereas there are numerous references to the Vedic Hindus. From this and, of course, from other contemporary references, it is quite clear that, at least, till that time the Buddhist sect was quite unknown beyond the Shatadru (Sutlej) river. It means that for about two hundred and fifty to three hundred years after the death of the Buddha, the Buddhist cult spread here and there round about Magadha and not farther off, a fact that deserves special notice for the proper interpretation of subsequent history. A Greek Means a Yavan! 17. Our contemporary Indian ancestors called these aggressive Greek foreigners, who professed a slightly alien religion, ‘Yavans’. But that is not the reason why we should call all foreign aggresssors ‘Yavans’. It is obviously a mistake. Especially, when our people began to call the Muslims ‘Yavans’, they really committed a blunder. Although the Greeks were aggressors and foreigners, they were, comparatively speaking, considered to be particularly devoted to learning and highly cultured and civilized,