The "Yona" Greek king of India Menander (160–135 BCE). Inscription in Greek: "BASILEŌS SOTĒROS MENANDROU", lit. "of Saviour King Menander".

"Yona" is a Pali word used in ancient India to designate Greek speakers. Its equivalent in Sanskrit, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Tamil is the word "Yavana" and "Javanan" in Bengali. "Yona" and "Yavana" are both transliterations of the Greek word for "Ionians" (Homer Iāones, older *Iāwones), who were probably the first Greeks to be known in the East.

The Yavanas are mentioned in the Buddhist discourse of the Middle Length Sayings, in which the Buddha mentions to the Brahman Assalayana the existence of the Kamboja and Yavana people who have only two castes, master or slave. The direct identification of the word "Yavana" with the Greeks at such an early time (6th-5th century) can be doubted.^[1] However, in the Hindu epic Mahabharata, the word "Yavana" is used to identify the Greeks.

Direct identification of these words with the Greeks include:

• The mention of the "Yona king Antiochus" in the Edicts of Ashoka (280 BCE)
• The mention of the "Yona king Antialcidas" in the Heliodorus pillar in Vidisha (110 BCE)
• King Menander and his bodyguard of "500 Yonas" in the Milinda Panha.
• The description of Greek astrology and Greek terminology in the Yavanajataka ("Sayings of the Yavanas") (150 CE).
• The mention of "Alexandria, the city of the Yonas" in the Mahavamsa, Chapter 29 (4th century CE).

Old World usage[link]

This usage was shared by many of the countries east of Greece, from the Mediterranean to India:

• Egyptians used the word j-w-n(-n)-’
• Assyrians used the word Iawanu
• Persians used the word Yauna or Yavanu
• Indians - used the word Yavana in Mahabharata and other historic texts.
• Sri Lankans - used the word Yona in Mahawamsa and other historic texts.
• In Biblical writings, the word was Yāvān (and still is, in modern Israeli Hebrew - יוון)
• In Arabic, Turkish, Persian and Urdu it is Yunan

Indian references[link]

In Indian sources, the usage of the words "Yona", "Yauna", "Yonaka", "Yavana" or "Javana" etc. appears repeatedly, and particularly in relation to the Greek kingdoms which neighboured or sometimes occupied the Indian north-western territories (which is now Afghanistan or part of Pakistan) over a period of several centuries from the 4th century BC to the 1st century AD, such as the Seleucid Empire, the Greco-Bactrian kingdom and the Indo-Greek kingdom. The Yavanas are mentioned in detail in Sangam literature epics such as Paṭṭiṉappālai, describing their brisk trade with the Cholas in Tamilakam.

After Alexander's invasion, the Greek settlements had existed in eastern parts of Achaemenid empire, north-west of India, as neighbors to the Iranian Kambojas. The references to the Yonas in the early Buddhist texts may be related to the same.

Role in Buddhism[link]

Edicts of Ashoka (250 BC)[link]

Buddhist proselytism at the time of king Ashoka (260–218 BC).

Some of the better known examples are those of the Edicts of Ashoka (c. 250 BC), in which the Buddhist emperor Ashoka refers to the Greek populations under his rule. Rock Edicts V and XIII mention the Yonas (or the Greeks) along with the Kambojas and Gandharas as a subject people forming a frontier region of his empire and attest that he sent envoys to the Greek rulers in the West as far as the Mediterranean, faultlessly naming them one by one. In the Gandhari original of Rock XIII, the Greek kings to the West are associated unambiguously with the term "Yona": Antiochus is referred as "Amtiyoko nama Yona-raja" (lit. "The Greek king by the name of Antiochus"), beyond whom live the four other kings: "param ca tena Atiyokena cature 4 rajani Turamaye nama Amtikini nama Maka nama Alikasudaro nama" (lit. "And beyond Antiochus, four kings by the name of Ptolemy, the name of Antigonos, the name of Magas, the name Alexander").

Dipavamsa and Sasanvamsa[link]

Other Buddhist texts such as the Dipavamsa and the Sasanavamsa reveal that after the Third Buddhist Council, the elder (thera) Mahárakkhita was sent to the Yona country and he preached Dharma among the Yonas and the Kambojas, and that at the same time the Yona elder (thera) Dharmaraksita was sent to the country of Aparantaka in western India also. Ashoka's Rock Edict XIII also pairs the Yonas with the Kambojas (Yonakambojesu) and conveys that the Brahmanas and Sramanas are found everywhere in his empire except in the lands of the Yonas and the Kambojas.

Mahawamsa[link]

The Mahawamsa or Great Chronicle of Sri Lanka refers to the thera Mahárakkhita being sent to preach to the Yona country, and also to the Yona thera Dhammarakkhita, who was sent to Aparanta (the "Western Ends").^[2] It also mentions that king Pandukabhaya set aside a part of the city of Anuradhapura for the Yonas.^[3] Another Yona thera, Mahádhammarakkhita, is mentioned as having come from Alexandria in the country of the Yonas, to be present at the building of the Ruwanweliseya.^[4]

Milindapanha[link]

Another example is that of the Milinda Panha (Chapter I), where "Yonaka" is used to refer to the great Indo-Greek king Menander (160–135 BC), and to the guard of "five hundred Greeks" that constantly accompanies him.

Invasion of India[link]

The Vanaparava of Mahabharata contains verses in the form of prophecy complaining that "......Mleccha (barbaric) kings of the Shakas, Yavanas, Kambojas, Bahlikas etc. shall rule the earth (i.e India) un-righteously in Kaliyuga..." .^[5] This reference apparently alludes to chaotic political scenario following the collapse of Mauryan and Sunga dynasties in northern India and its subsequent occupation by foreign hordes of the Yavanas, Kambojas, Sakas and Pahlavas etc.

There are important references to the warring Mleccha hordes of the Shakas, Yavanas, Kambojas, Pahlavas etc. in the Bala Kanda of the Valmiki Ramayana.^[6]

Indologists like Dr H. C. Raychadhury, Dr B. C. Law, Dr Satya Shrava and others see in these verses the clear glimpses of the struggles of the Hindus with the mixed invading hordes of the barbaric Sakas, Yavanas, Kambojas, Pahlavas etc. from north-west.^[7] The time frame for these struggles is 2nd century BCE downwards. Dr Raychadhury fixes the date of the present version of the Valmiki Ramayana around/after 2nd century CE.^[8]

The other Indian records describe the 180 BCE Yavana attacks on Saketa, Panchala, Mathura and Pataliputra, probably against the Sunga empire, and possibly in defense of Buddhism. The main mentions of the invasion are those by Patanjali around 150 BCE, and of the Yuga Purana, which, like the Mahabharata, also describes Indian historical events in the form of a prophecy:

"After having conquered Saketa, the country of the Panchala and the Mathuras, the Yavanas, wicked and valiant, will reach Kusumadhvaja ("The town of the flower-standard", Pataliputra). The thick mud-fortifications at Pataliputra being reached, all the provinces will be in disorder, without doubt. Ultimately, a great battle will follow, with tree-like engines (siege engines)."^[9]

"The Yavanas (Greeks) will command, the Kings will disappear. (But ultimately) the Yavanas, intoxicated with fighting, will not stay in Madhadesa (the Middle Country); there will be undoubtedly a civil war among them, arising in their own country (Bactria), there will be a terrible and ferocious war."^[10]

The Anushasanaparava of Mahabharata affirms that the country of Mathura, the heartland of India, was under the joint military control of the Yavanas and the Kambojas.^[11]

From the references noted above, it appears certain that the Yavana invasion of Majjhimadesa (Mid India) was jointly carried out by the Yavanas and the Kambojas. The Greek Yavanas were apparently a minority foreigners in India and naturally may have obtained, in this invasion, the military support of their good neighbors, the warlike Kambojas. The evidence from the Mathura Lion Capital inscriptions of Saka great Satrap (Mahakshatrapa) Rajuvula also lends strong credibility to this view.

The Mid India invasion was followed by almost two centuries of Yavana rule which in the light of evidence presented above, appears to have been a joint Yavana-Kamboja rule.

Scientific abilities[link]

There is a claim by proponents of the Aryan invasion theory that some Indian literature praises the knowledge of the Yavanas, or Greeks, as superior. Such claims are being re-examined by scholars with more concrete backgrounds in both spoken Sanskrit and Vedic temple rituals for greater cultural accuracy.

For example, one claim holds that a version of the Mahabharata describes yavanas as "sarvajnaa", or omniscient. Such superlatives, dispersed throughout the epic, were a common Sanskritic means of announcing characters, tribes, or families and paying due literary respect. For instance, the hated antagonist of the epic, Duryodhana, is in many verses renamed "Suyodhana", the prefix "su" meaning good, beautiful, and excellent.^[12]

Historically, people of barbaric civilizations were termed "mlecchas", with impure knowledge. "Barbarian" itself is derived from the Sanskrit "barbarah", meaning unpolished, lowly, fool or blockhead, while "sanskrit" refers to perfect action, polished, and cultured.^[13] This is consistent with Sanskrit's reputation across even present-day India as "deva bhaasha", or divine language.

References to "mlechha" teachings having any profound effect on India's enormous body of knowledge are discarded in serious academic circles. A more accurate description of Greeks may be from the "Brihat-Samhita", where the mathematician Varahamihira says: "The Greeks, though impure, must be honored since they were trained in sciences".^[14]

Other references[link]

On the 110 BCE Heliodorus pillar in Vidisha in Central India, the Indo-Greek king Antialcidas, who had sent an ambassador to the court of the Sunga king Bhagabhadra, was also qualified as "Yona".

The Mahavamsa also attests Yona settlement in Anuradhapura in ancient Sri Lanka, probably contributing to trade between East and West.

Buddhist texts like Sumangala Vilasini class the language of the Yavanas with the Milakkhabhasa i.e. impure language.

The Yonas and other northwestern invaders in Indian literature[link]

The Yavanas or Yonas are frequently found listed with the Kambojas, Sakas, Pahlavas and other northwestern tribes in numerous ancient Indian texts.

The Mahabharata groups the Yavanas with the Kambojas and the Chinas and calls them "Mlechchas" (Barbarians). In the Shanti Parava section, the Yavanas are grouped with the Kambojas, Kiratas, Sakas, and the Pahlavas etc. and are spoken of as living the life of Dasyus (slaves). In another chapter of the same Parava, the Yaunas, Kambojas, Gandharas etc. are spoken of as equal to the "Svapakas" and the "Grddhras".

Udyogaparava of Mahabharata^[15] says that the composite army of the Kambojas, Yavanas and Sakas had participated in the Mahabharata war under the supreme command of Kamboja king Sudakshina. The epic numerously applauds this composite army as being very fierce and wrathful.

Balakanda of Ramayana also groups the Yavanas with the Kambojas, Sakas, Pahlavas etc. and refers to them as the military allies of sage Vishistha against Vedic king Vishwamitra^[16] The Kishkindha Kanda of Ramayana locates the Sakas, Kambojas, Yavanas and Paradas in the extreme north-west beyond the Himavat (i.e. Hindukush).^[17]

The Buddhist drama Mudrarakshasa by Visakhadutta as well as the Jaina works Parisishtaparvan refer to Chandragupta's alliance with Himalayan king Parvatka. This Himalayan alliance gave Chandragupta a powerful composite army made up of the frontier martial tribes of the Shakas, Kambojas, Yavanas, Parasikas, Bahlikas etc.^[18] which he utilised to defeat the Greek successors of Alexander the Great and the Nanda rulers of Magadha, and thus establishing his Mauryan Empire in northern India.

Manusmriti^[19] lists the Yavanas with the Kambojas, Sakas, Pahlavas, Paradas etc. and regards them as degraded Kshatriyas (members of the warrior cast). Anushasanaparava of Mahabharata^[20] also views the Yavanas, Kambojas, Shakas etc. in the same light. Patanjali's Mahabhasya^[21]) regards the Yavanas and Sakas as anirvasita (pure) Shudras. Gautama-Dharmasutra^[22] regards the Yavanas or Greeks as having sprung from Shudra females and Kshatriya males.

The Assalayana Sutta of Majjhima Nikaya attests that in Yona and Kamboja nations, there were only two classes of people...Aryas and Dasas...the masters and slaves, and that the Arya could become Dasa and vice versa. The Vishnu Purana also indicates that the "chatur-varna" or four class social system was absent in the lands of Kiratas in the East and the Yavanas and Kambojas etc. in the West.

Numerous Puranic literature groups the Yavanas with the Sakas, Kambojas, Pahlavas and Paradas and refers to the peculiar hair styles of these people which were different from those of the Hindus. Ganapatha on Pāṇini attests that it was a practice among the Yavanas and the Kambojas to wear short-cropped hair (Kamboja-mundah Yavana-mundah).

Vartika of Katayayana informs us that the kings of the Shakas and the Yavanas, like those of the Kambojas, may also be addressed by their respective tribal names.

Brihat-Katha-Manjari of Kshmendra ^[23] informs us that king Vikramaditya had unburdened the sacred earth of the Barbarians like the Shakas, Kambojas, Yavanas, Tusharas, Parasikas, Hunas etc. by annihilating these sinners completely.

The Brahmanda Purana^[24] refers to the horses born in Yavana country.

The Mahaniddesa^[25] speaks of Yona and Parama Yona, probably referring to Arachosia as the Yona and Bactria as the Parama Yona.

Later meanings[link]

The terms "Yona", "Yonaka" or "Yavana" literally referred to the Greeks. However were termed as "Mlechas" probably due to the barbaric behaviour as invaders. Indian languages did not address the difference based on religion early on but after the arrival of Islam to the subcontinent, more than Mussalaman or Muslim, appellation Yavana along with Turuka, Turuska, Tajik, and Arab came to be used for invaders professing Islam as their religion.^[26]

Contemporary usage[link]

The word Yona, or one of its derivatives, is still used by some languages to designate contemporary Greece, such as in Arabic (يونان), in Hebrew (יוון), in Turkish ("Yunanistan"), in Assyrian (Yawnoye ܝܘ̈ܢܝܐ), or the Pashto, Hindi, Urdu, Malay and Indonesian languages ("Yunani").

See also[link]

• Yavana Kingdom
• Greco-Buddhism
• Names of the Greeks
• History of Buddhism
• Kambojas

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• The shape of ancient thought. Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian philosophies, by Thomas Mc Evilly (Allworth Press, New York 2002) ISBN 1-58115-203-5

External links[link]

• Pali dictionary definition of "Yona"

"Yona" is also a common transliteration of the Hebrew form of the given name commonly given to both men and women, Jonah

Tuure Kilpeläinen (born in Uusikaupunki, Finland on June 29, 1970) is a Finnish musician and singer-songwriter and since 2010 signed to WEA / Warner Music.

A solo artist, he has also collaborated with a number of other artists such as Jonna Tervomaa, Jippu, Vuokko Hovatta, Anna Puu, Vesa-Matti Loiri, Jorma Kääriäinen, Kari Tapio and ja Johanna Kurkela. During Emma-gaala, he won the "Best male singer} award in 2011. He has joined forces with Kaihon Karavaani in releasing various albums credited to Tuure Kilpeläinen ja Kaihon Karavaani most notably with the album Afrikan tähti that entered the Finnish Albums Chart straight in at #2.

Discography[link]

Singles[link]

• 2002: "Älä revi mua"
• 2003: "Vesitornin varjossa"
• 2003: "Ihoni alla"
• 2003: "Haloo Hanoi"
• 2004: "Lusikat laatikossa"
• 2005: "Turisti"
• 2005: "Viisi virhettä"
• 2005: "Rakkautta ruttopuistossa"
• 2006: "Holtiton sydän"
• 2006: "Jos sudelta kysytään"
• 2006: "Rakkaus murhaa"
• 2006: "Kaupungin suonet"
• 2007: "Vipusen vakava vesivahinko"
• 2010: "Valon pisaroita"
• 2010: "Vaeltava aave"
• 2010: "Lohtu"
• 2011: "Pelko pois"
• 2011: "Ystävänpäivä"
• 2012: "Erämaa" (as Tuure Kilpeläinen ja Kaihon Karavaani)
• 2012: "¡Eloon!" (as Tuure Kilpeläinen ja Kaihon Karavaani)
• 2012: "Tahtoisin, tahtoisin" (feat. Yona)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Discogs

et:Tuure Kilpeläinen

fi:Tuure Kilpeläinen

This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (May 2009)

Yona Friedman (born 5 June 1923,^[1] Budapest) is a Hungarian-born French architect, urban planner and designer. He became famous in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the so-called age of megastructures.

Early years[link]

Yona Friedman has been through the Second World War escaping the Nazi roundups and lived for about a decade in the city of Haifa in Israel before moving permanently to Paris in 1957. He became a French citizen in 1966. In 1956, the X International Congress of Modern Architecture in Dubrovnick, his "Manifeste de l'architecture mobile" contributed to question definitely the daring will planning to architectural design and urbanism. It was during that conference, and thanks especially to the youth of the Team 10, that "mobile architecture" was coined in the sense of "mobility of living." With the example of "Ville spatiale", Friedman set out - for the first time - the principles of an architecture capable of understanding the constant changes that characterize the "social mobility" and based on "infrastructure" that provide housing. Planning rules could be created and recreated, according to the need of the inhabitants and residents. Its focus on people themselves arises from its direct experience of homeless refugees, first in European cities facing war and disaster and later in Israel, where, in the early years of the State, thousands of people landed every day, with housing problems .

Maturity[link]

In 1958, he founded the Groupe d'études de architecture mobile (GEAM), dissolved in 1962. In 1963, he developed the idea of a city bridge and participated actively in the cultural climate and utopian architecture of the 60s known as the "Age of megastructures". Since the mid-sixties he has taught at several American universities. In the following decade he worked for the United Nations and UNESCO, through the dissemination of self-building manuals in African countries, South America and India. Despite the perennial utopian label, Friedman said: "I have always tried, in architectural studies, to develop projects that were feasible." In 1978, he was commissioned to design the Lycée Bergson in Angers, France, completed in 1981. On this occasion he published a procedure in which the distribution and arrangement of all the architectural elements were designed and decided by future users. Because even non-professionals can understand and apply his method, he wrote also howto comics. Interest in the issue of participation has brought Friedman to architects like Giancarlo De Carlo and Bernard Rudofsky.

In 1987, in Madras, India, Friedman completed the Museum of Simple Technology in which the principles of self-construction from local materials like bamboo were applied. He also authored books dealing with technical subjects (For a scientific architecture, Workshop 1975), sociological (L'architecture du survie, L'éclat 2003) and epistemological (L'univers erratique , PUF 1994). The book that best represents, however, Friedman's ethics and spirit is perhaps "Utopies Réalisables (French for feasible utopias), published in France in 1975 and also published in Italian (Quodlibet 2003) describing a project to restructure our society in a genuine democratic way, seeking to escape any elitism through the theory of the critical group. The book is also a fierce critique of the myth of global communication. From the book: "The analysis of social utopias presented in this book implies, implicitly in the act of accusation and criticism of these two 'plagues' of our times which are: 'the state mafia' and the 'media mafia' (press, television etc.). The existence of a state mafia resultsfrom the impossibility to keep the shape of the classic democratic state once its size exceeds certain limits, and the 'media mafia' is a direct result of an inability of global communication ( Worldwide). The Internet can be used as an example, that this inability is not the result of technical difficulties but rather stems from the fundamental human inability to universal communication (from all to all). The failure of these two generous utopias, democracy and the 'global communication' between men, logically leads to the formation of gangs who act in our behalf against our interests. As well as an indictment, this book will simultaneously be an act of encouragement: the individual should be encouraged not to offer their help or their tacit consent to these two gangs. It is not a call for revolution, but a call to resistance. "

Mobile architecture[link]

In 1958, Yona Friedman published his first manifesto : "Mobile architecture". It described a new kind of mobility not of the buildings, but for the inhabitants, who are given a new freedom.

Mobile architecture is the "dwelling decided on by the occupant" by way of "infrastructures that are neither determined nor determining". Mobile architecture embodies an architecture available for a "mobile society". To deal with it, the classical architect invented "the Average Man". The projects of architects in the 1950s were undertaken, according to Friedman, to meet the needs of this make-believe entity, and not as an attempt to meet the needs of the actual members of this mobile society.

The teaching of architecture was largely responsible for the "classical" architect's under-estimation of the role of the user. Furthermore this teaching did not embrace any real theory of architecture. Friedman proposed then teaching manuals for the fundamentals of architecture for the general public.

The spatial city, which is a materialization of this theory, makes it possible for everyone to develop his or her own hypothesis. This is why, in the mobile city, buildings should :

1. touch the ground over a minimum area
2. be capable of being dismantled and moved
3. and be alterable as required by the individual occupant.

The Spatial City[link]

The Spatial City is the most significant application of "mobile architecture". It is a spatial, three-dimensional structure raised up on piles which contains inhabited volumes, fitted inside some of the "voids", alternating with other unused volumes. It is designed on the basis of trihedral elements which operate as "neighbourhoods" where dwellings are freely distributed.

This structure introduce a kind of merger between countryside and city (compare to Paolo Soleri's Arcology concept) and may span:

• certain unavailable sites,
• areas where building is not possible or permitted (expanses of water, marshland),
• areas that have already been built upon (an existing city),
• above farmland.

This spanning technique which includes container structures ushers in a new development in town-planning. Raised plans increase the original area of the city becoming three-dimensional. The tiering of the spatial city on several independent levels, one on top of the other, determines "spatial town-planning" both from the functional and from the aesthetic viewpoint. The lower level may be earmarked for public life and for premises designed for community services as well as pedestrian areas. The piles contain the vertical means of transport (lifts, staircases). The superposition of levels should make it possible to build a whole industrial city, or a residential or commercial city, on the same site. In this way, the Spatial City forms what Yona Friedman would call an "artificial topography". This grid suspended in space outlines a new cartography of the terrain with the help of a continuous and indeterminate homogeneous network with a major positive outcome: this modular grid would authorize the limitless growth of the city.

The spaces in this grid are rectangular and habitable modular "voids", with an average area of 25-35 square meters. Conversely, the form of the volumes included within the grid depends solely on the occupant, and their configuration set with a "Flatwriter" in the grid is completely free. Only one half of the spatial city would be occupied. The "fillings" which correspond to the dwellings only actually take up 50 % of the three-dimensional lattice, permitting the light to spread freely in the spatial city. This introduction of elements on a three-dimensional grid with several levels on piles permits a changeable occupancy of the space by means of the convertibility of the forms and their adaptation to multiple uses.

In Yona Friedman's own words "The city, as a mechanism, is thus nothing other than a labyrinth : a configuration of points of departure, and terminal points, separated by obstacles".

Quotes[link]

• "If a theory is well constructed and spread abroad, it has the advantage of no longer being the property of specialists, but of stemming from the public domain. The present-day monopoly of the architect has to do with the fact that there is no real theory, but merely a set of pseudo-theoriesä in other words, observations which only reflect the preferences of their authors".
• "A theory must be general and valid for anybody".
• "Everyone has their hypotheses. The general theory that I am trying to propound underpins all individual hypotheses".

Major written works[link]

• 1958: Mobile architecture
• 1975: Towards a scientific architecture ISBN 0-262-56019-4
• 1980: A better life in towns: [campaign for the renaissance of cities]
• 2006: Yona Friedman: Pro Domo ISBN 84-96540-51-0

See also[link]

• Archigram
• Constantin Xenakis
• Manfredi Nicoletti
• Megastructures (architecture)
• Metabolist Movement

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Annie Ratti, Yona Friedman, Luca Cerizza, Massimo Bartolini, Anna Daneri, Marco De Michelis, Manuel Orazi "Yona Friedman" Charta/Fondazione Antonio Ratti (March 1, 2009) ISBN 88-8158-705-X

External links[link]

• http://yonafriedman.blogspot.com/
• Yona Friedman at the archINFORM database
• http://www.e-flux.com/shows/view/5224
• http://www.frac-centre.fr/public/collecti/artistes/friedman/noti01en.htm
• Short biography on Megastructure Reloaded
• Blue Print Magazine June 12, 2009