Yavanas
Yavana · yavana, “the Yavana people”
The Yavanas are a people named many times in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa. Śuka Maharshi tells Parīkshit that they, like the Kirātas, the Hūṇas and other peoples, become pure by taking refuge in the devotees of Śrī Hari. King Sagara spared them at the word of his guru Aurva but made them bear disfigured marks; Bharata, son of Dushyanta, slew them in his conquest of the directions; Kālayavana, the king of the Yavanas, came against Mathurā with an army of three crores of mlecchas; and in the Kali age eight Yavana kings will rule the earth. In the account of Purañjana that Nārada Maharshi tells, the soldiers of Bhaya, the lord of the yavanas, besiege and destroy the city of Purañjana.
Made pure through the devotees of Śrī Hari
Before he answers Parīkshit‘s question on how Śrī Hari creates the world, Śuka offers a series of namaskāras to Śrī Hari. In the seventh he says: not only the people of all lands, the Kirātas, Hūṇas, Āndhras, Pulindas, Pulkasas, Ābhīras, Kaṅkas, Yavanas, Khasas and others, but even pāpātmas, people sunk in pāpa, become pure by taking refuge in the devotees of Śrī Hari. Many namaskāras to that all-powerful Śrī Hari.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 4
Spared by Sagara
When Sagara became a cakravartī, he did not kill the Tālajaṅghas, the Yavanas, the Haihayas and the Barbaras, by the word of his guru Aurva, but made them bear disfigured appearances: some he made shaven-headed, some bearded, some with loose, unbound hair, some half-shaven; some he made wear only an upper cloth, and some no upper cloth at all.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 8
Slain in Bharata’s digvijaya
Of Bharata, the son of Dushyanta, Śuka says that no king before him did such deeds, and none after him will. In his digvijaya yātrā, his journey of conquest of the directions, he slew all the Kirātas, Hūṇas, Yavanas, Andhras, Kaṅkas, Khaśas, Śakas and Mlecchas, and the kings hostile to the Veda.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 20
Kālayavana, king of the Yavanas
As the eighteenth battle with Jarāsandha was about to come, a hero named Kālayavana suddenly appeared at Mathurā. Nārada himself had sent him. In the world of men none was his equal in strength, but hearing that the Yādavas were his equals, he came with three crores of mlecchas and besieged Mathurā (Skandha 10, Chapter 50). Śrī Kṛshṇa, on foot and unarmed, led the lord of the Yavanas far away to a mountain cave, where the sleeping rājarshi Mucukunda, woken by Kālayavana’s kick, burned him to ash with a glance (Skandha 10, Chapter 51). Then Śrī Kṛshṇa returned to Mathurā, destroyed the army of the mlecchas that surrounded the city, and had their wealth taken to Dvārakā (Skandha 10, Chapter 52). When Sūta sums up the Bhāgavata at its close, he names among Śrī Kṛshṇa’s deeds the slaying of Kālayavana, the king of the Yavanas (Skandha 12, Chapter 12).
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapters 50–52; Skandha 12, Chapter 12
The Yavana kings of the Kali age
Parīkshit asked Śuka what lines of kings would rule after Śrī Kṛshṇa had gone to his own dhāma. Among the kings to come, Śuka names seven kings of the Ābhīra people who ruled the city of Avabhṛti, ten Gardabhas and fourteen Kaṅkas. After them eight Yavanas, fourteen Turushkas, again ten Guruṇḍas and eleven Maunas will rule. These Yavanas, Turushkas and Guruṇḍas will rule the earth for 1,099 years, and the eleven Mauna kings for 300 years.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 12, Chapter 1
The yavanas of Bhaya
In the account of Purañjana that Nārada Maharshi tells King Prācīnabarhi, Jarā, the daughter of Kāla, went to Bhaya, the lord of the yavanas, and chose him as her husband; but Bhaya did not marry her himself, and took her as his sister. His soldiers, obeying his command, roamed the whole earth with his elder brother Prajvāra and with Kālakanyā. One day they besieged Purañjana’s city; while Kālakanyā occupied it, the yavanas entered through its gates from every direction and laid it waste, and with the gandharvas they plundered Purañjana’s wealth. They besieged the house of the nāga that protected the city and blocked its flight. At last the yavanas took Purañjana away to their own place like an animal, his grieving followers walking after him, and as the mighty yavana dragged him, Purañjana, covered by ajñāna, could not remember Avijñāta, the friend who had done him good before.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapters 27–28
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 4; Skandha 4, Chapters 27–28; Skandha 9, Chapters 8, 20; Skandha 10, Chapters 50–52; Skandha 12, Chapters 1, 12