The identity of Yavanas is important in the debate on Greek vs Vedic astrology. Reproduced here is a version on Yavanas as found in Raja Tarangini.
Source:-http://trueindianhistory-kvchelam.blogspot.in/2009/04/yavanas-and-yavana-kingdoms-referred-in.html
Yavanas and Yavana Kingdoms referred in Rajatarangini
To the west of Kashmir there were five Yavana countries. Some of them are now part of Kashmir Empire. These Yavanas were not Greeks but they belonged to the Kshatriya race of India. As these disregarded and neglected the performance of vedic duties and rites they were called Mlechchas. In those Yavana regions lived four castes of people. As all these castes relinquished Vedic rites, their caste-names were merely nominal. Among the people of the Yona kingdoms Rajatarangini relates that there were castes called Yona Brahmins, Yona Kshatriyas, Yona Vaisyas and
Yona Sudras.
Yona or Yavana Kingdoms:
1. Abhisara, 2. Uraga (Urasa), 3. SimhaPura (Singapura)
4, Divya Kataka (Deva Kataka or Kataka ), 5, Uttara
jyotisha.
(Vide the Map of western India in post 'The Empire of Kashmir').
"Abhisara" consisted of two regions namely "'Darva" and "Abhisara." The kings of these Yavana regions were Kshatriyas who became Mlechchas, were subordinate and paid tribute to Kashmir Kings. We find in Rajatarangini many instances, when these Yavana rulers revolted and became independent and the Kashmir monarchs subdued the rebels and brought them again under their sovereignty.
Some of these five regions are part of Kashmir and others are on the western border. In the list of the Kashmir Kings, during the reign of 130th ruler, Kalasa Maha Raja, there was the description of Yona Brahmin as follows,
"There was a Brahmin born in the Yona Village who begged alms of paddy. His name was "Loshtaka" and he was considered to be an Astrologer of that village." So says Rajatrangjni. From this, it is evident that the Kshatriyas residing in the Yona regions, on the borders of Kashmir, though they were firstly Kshatriyas, were treated as Mlechchas, on account of their disregarding their vedic duties; the other caste people also were called Mlechchas. Therefore, Rajatarangini relates that there were caste differences even among the Mlechchas. The yona Brahmins were experts in Astrology. The 'Yavana. Rishi', the author of "Yavana Siddhanta", was a 'Bharatiya Yavana Brahmin', but not a Greek. The territory "Ionia" which got that name, on account of its conquest by the Yavanas of india, was later called Greece from its contact with the savage Greek tribes. The Bharata Yavanas were of a very ancient origin. They took the sciences of Astrology and others, on their migration to 'Ionia'(modern Greece) from India, but India borrowed nothing from Greece. On the otherhand. the western writers turned matters topsy-turvy and proclaimed that all the arts and sciences flowed from Greece to India. The histories containing this inverted information were introduced as Text-Books and our children were taught these packs of lies in the schools and colleges. As the students were manufactured to be disciples of the Greeks, as a result, they cultivated a love for Greek lore and learning and developed a hate for Bharatiya knowledge and wisdom. Until and unless correct and true history of Bharat is written and these authentic books are prescribed as Texts for study in the schools and Colleges, these wrong and baneful notions cannot be torpedoed and the minds of future generations of young men cannot be diverted from the tinsel glamour of west to the true glory of the East, the hearth and home of culture and civilisation from time immemorial.
