Lulu Tan
PhD project: “From Hellenism to Yona: Temporality, Fludity and Identity of the Indo-Greek Community (3rd c. BCE to 1st c. CE)”
My project is focused on the Indo-Greeks, referred to as Yona/Yavana in ancient Indic texts, who trace their origins back to the Achaemenid Persian period. Inhabiting the eastern border of the Hellenistic world, they also existed at the intersection of South Asian civilization, nomadic cultures (like Indo-Parthians, Sakas), and Chinese civilization. The blending and fusion of cultures and ethnicity gave rise to the “Yona community,” which in turn developed a cultural reconciliation mechanism led by the Yona. This mechanism, I will argue, provided a dynamic stability to the post-imperial order.
Older studies have primarily focused on political history and Buddhist discourse, without systematically addressing the ethnic identity of the Indo-Greeks. Moreover, in reconciling the narratives of “hellenism” and “localism,” previous research has overlooked the fact that the history of the Yona is not only the evolution of a regional ethnic group, but also an epitome of cross-cultural dialogue and integration in the post-imperial order. Additionally, related discussions have not strictly distinguished the modern academic term “Indo-Greeks” from the depiction of Yona/Yavana in ancient Indian texts, thus blurring the post-imperial dilemma that both terms represent in historical context.
This study will investigate the historical concept of Yona from both an emic and etic perspective, aiming to figure out, through a redefinition of the relationship between the Indo-Greeks and the Yona, how the Yona people understood and articulated their identity. Additionally, my research attempts to conceptualize the Yona community and a new model of “Yonaization” as an ethnic paradigm, focusing on the integrative meaning of ethnic identity and the understanding and experience of multiple identities within the framework of aggregated identity. The goal is to propose a more inclusive historical explanatory framework for Yona identity, challenging traditional models of ethnic studies.
At a time of both political rupture and cultural continuity marking the post-Alexander era, my project will finally approach Yona identity in terms of “fluid Yona,” showing how the Yona people gained coherence as a group through cross-regional interactions and multiple identities that became available in a context of cultural reconciliation and power restructuring. From this perspective, the study will explore the complex relationship between power, culture, and identity in ancient multi-ethnic networks, aiming to provide new theoretical insights for the study of Hellenistic ethnic groups in the context of multiple imperial influences.