Re: Aryan invasion theory and race

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "shivkhokra" <shivkhokra@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham"
> <richard.wordingham@> wrote:
>
> > You seem to be saying that the match between Hebrew
> >_yawan_ 'Greek' and Sanskrit _yavana_ is a coincidence.
> > Do I understand you?
>
> Yes. We can conclude that it is a coincidence.

Is it, really? Is it also a chain of fortuitous "coincidences" that we also have Greek io:nes pl. (epic: iaones) 'Ionians', Assyrian
yaw(a)naya (= <iaunaia>), Babylonian ia-a-ma-nu (cuneiform spelling for yawanu = <iauanu>), Old Persian yauna:, Neo-Elamite iyauna, Imperial Aramaic ywn, Demotic Egyptian wynn, all meaning 'Greek(s)'?

I have discussed the etymology of the Sanskrit term yavana 'Greek' on various occasions on different Lists Shivraj too has a membership in, but he now seems to be totally oblivious of those discussions.

> Yavan in Sanskrit is related to "yovan" which means "young" (the
> reason perhaps why the mercenaries were called yavan was because
> these groups comprised of younger people.

Oh well... Apart from the fact that the correct transliteration of this Rgvedic term for 'young, youthful, youth' is yuvan and not "yovan", the above fanciful etymology is taken directly, irrespective of whether Shivraj is aware of this fact or not, from some outdated nineteenth-century publications by the Theosophical Society (yes, Madame Blavatsky!):

http://tinyurl.com/p5dbgt (p. 37)
"The word 'Yavana' was a generic term employed ages before the 'Greeks of Alexander' projected 'their influence' upon Jambudvipa [the Sanskrit name of the continent, as envisioned in the cosmologies of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, where the Aryas live -- Francesco] -- to designate people of a younger race, the word meaning yuvan 'young', or younger."

It is a well-known fact that Sanskrit yuvan has many cognates within Indo-European, such as Latin iuvenis 'young man', Lithuanian jaunas 'young', etc. etc. -- see at

http://tinyurl.com/pemv8v

The exact Indo-European proto-form of this word may be disputed (problems with the reconstruction of laryngeals, etc.), but the root cannot certainly change the vowel of its first syllable to -a- so as to give yavana!

> From it is the latin "juvenis" and the anglo saxon, iong, iung,
> geong.

No, these words cannot be derived from Sanskrit yuvan.

> Yavioshta is used for the "ever young" Agni in Vedic Hymns.
> Yavistha is the superlative of Yovan (young) and is used for Agni
> and means latest born or kindled fire

No, the correct form is yavi.s.tha.

> From this the Greeks got their Hephaistos, their fire god and god
> of volcanoes.

So Greek Hephaistos, admittedly a theonym of obscure etymology, would derive from Sanskrit yavi.s.tha 'youngest, very young' (esp. applied to Agni when just produced from wood)? Where did you draw this notion?

VERY perplexed,
Francesco