Yona
Yonaguni Island
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Yona
–> Used in ancient India to refer to the Greek speakers, eg Yona king Antiochus is mentioned in in the Edicts of Ashoka (280 BCE) … However, a dissident view believes yona refers to indigenous Indians (source)
–> denotes Indo-Greeks in the Pali language, as well as Arab (Moormen)
–> “Yona Yona（夜な夜な）” is Old Japanese from “a tale of Genji”. It meaning “night afternight” or “every night”… See rakuten
–> Yonah or Jonah means “dove” in Yiddish or Hebrew – source
–> a possible cognate of Yonah/Jonah, perhaps named by arriving settlers after the cultural hero and minor prophet of the Middle East and Mediterranean (see Campbell)
–> Yona means “womb” in the Indian scriptures Rigveda, see
“Heaven rests in the abode of rta (sadana rtasya; RV 4.42.5).5 The sons of Aditi thrive in the home of rta (rtasya vavrdhur
dorone … putra aditer …. ; RV 7.60.5). The Rudras prosper in the dwelling of rta (sadanesu rtasya; RV 2.34.13), and the domain of ~ta (prasitih rtasya; RV 10.92.4) is said to be the sky and vast space. The security of rta is exhibited by the fact that it is often described as a womb(yoni/garbha).6 Thus, heaven and earth rejoice in the womb of ~ta (rtasya yona; RV 3.54.6). At RV 10.65.b, the extent of space which heaven and earth inhabit is called the “rtasya yoni”. The god Agni is said to have been born in the womb (garbha) which is the womb of rta (rtasya yona; RV 1.65.4).”
— “Toward a comprehensive understanding of the Rta in the RgVeda” by Curtis R Heckaman
Sources and readings:
Yona entry in Wikipedia
P. 605, A Dictionary of the Pali Language, by Robert Cæsar Childers
Campbell, Joseph (1988). The Hero With A Thousand Faces. Princeton University Press. pp. 90–95.
Taking the Argo to Nineveh: Jonah and Jason in a Mediterranean context, Judaism Summer, 1995.
“Toward a comprehensive understanding of the Rta in the RgVeda” by Curtis R HeckamanWikipedia entry “Jonah”
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