Indian term used in reference to Greeks, or foreign barbarians in general.

As a Sanskritization of the Middle Indic yona, the term referred to the Hellenistic “Ionians” who had settled in the Bactrian region and in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent after the conquest of Alexander the Great. In later times it came to refer to anyone coming from the Iranian plateau, including Arab Muslims. The Tibetan rendering reflects an understanding of the Sanskrit yavana as etymologically derived from yava (“barley”).