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THE YONAS
157
dhvajam | Tatah Puspapure prāpte Karddame prathite hite | Akulā vişayā sarve bhavisyanti na samsayah|l'1 In Patañjali's Mahābhāsya there is a similar line: 'Arunad Yavanah Sāketam: Arunad Yavano Madhyamikām.' According to Sir R. G. Bhandarkar this shows that a certain Yavana or Greek prince had besieged Sāketa or Ayodhyā and another place called Madhyamikā (near Chitor) when Patañjali wrote this. Kālidāsa in his Mālavikāgnimitram refers to a conflict between the Sunga prince Vasumitra and a Yavana on the southern bank of the Sindhu. The name of this invader, however, is not given in the Mahābhāsya or the Mālavikāgnimitram. It is clear at any rate that the extension of Yavana power to the interior of India was thwarted in the first instance by the Sungas. In Western India the rising power of the Andhras, Andhrabhrtyas or Sātavāhanas caused the last vestige of Yavana power to disappear. Thus from the Nāsik Cave Inscription of Gautamiputra Sātakarni we learn that he destroyed the Sakas, Yavanas and Pahlavas. While in the north-west of India the Yavanas were swept away by the onrush of the Parthians or Pahlavas, as we learn from Chinese sources.
1 Kern, Byhatsamhitā, p. 37. 2 Political History of Ancient India, 4th Ed., p. 316.
