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J. W. DE JONG fore that time Greek coins circulated in India. In Pāṇini, the Indian grammarian, who lived perhaps about 400 B.C., occurs the word yavanāni, an adjective of the feminine gender 'the Greek one' (IV. 1.49). Pāņini knew script62 but the word for script used by him derives from Old Persian dipi63. However, it is possible that yavanāni refers to the Greek script 64. Certainly derived from the Greek are the terms for ink, reed-pen and book: melā (uénav), kalama, kalamā (xónapos) and pustaka (TÚELvov) 65. Another word very close to yavanāni: yavanikā, has provoked many discussions. Yavanikā is the curtain against which Indian plays were acted. The use of this word has suggested the idea that the Indian drama derives from the Greek drama. At present this theory is generally rejected, but it may be possible that the yavanikā stems from the Greek mime, because Greek mimes were acted against a curtain 66.
There are many analogies between Greek and Indian medicine, but it is difficult to indicate the origin of these common elements. It seems that especially in surgery Greek influence was considerable 67. In many other fields scholars have discussed the possibility of mutual influences for instance in philosophy, geometry and literature, but the evidence is not sufficient to prove this. In the fields of arts and astronomy Greek influence is obvious, in other fields it is probable but difficult to demonstrate. As the Greeks have influenced the Indians, so have the Indians influenced the Greeks. In the first place, of course, the Greeks in India were subject to Indian influence. We know from inscriptions that Greeks were converted to Buddhism and to Hinduism. Indian influence
62. Cf. lipikara in III.2.21. 63. Cf. Renou, op.cit., p. 32.
64. Cf. V.S. Agrawala, India as known to Pāṇini, University of Lucknow, 1953, pp. 312 and 465-466; Renou, op.cit., p. 113.
65. Cf. A.Weber, Die Griechen in Indien, Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1890, pp. 911-914; Tarn, op.cit., p. 376, n. 2; Renou, op.cit., PP. 32 and 108.
66. Tarn, op.cit., p. 383; M. Winternitz, Geschichte der indischen Literatur, III, Leipzig, 1922, pp. 174-1 80.
67. J. Jolly, Medicin, Strassburg, 1901, p. 19.
