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Davidson: Hidden Realms and Pure Abodes 157prose “translation” from the lost Greek text, which Pingree maintains wasoriginally a composition from the illustrious city of Alexandria, Egypt.That does not mean, however, that it is a simple translation in the mannerwe know today, for the text discourses on topics from reincarnation toBrahmans, from Buddhists to ®≈is, and so forth. Thus the text is in reality anextremely interesting exercise in domestication of foreign materials, withsubtle shifts in reference throughout the surviving Sanskrit so that anIndian reader (for whom else would such a text be written?) would gainimmediate access to the “Greek” science, even while the transposition tothe Indian cultural landscape was in process. As a measure of its success,the Yavana-jåtaka, like the Gårg∆ya-jyoti≈a, became a seminal text thatengendered a whole other series of “Yavana” works, some of them byactual Indo-Greeks or Ûakas in India. 7We cannot leave the issue of the Yavana influence without mentioningthat famous literary figure—the Indo-Greek king Menander. His ethnicaffiliation is unquestionably declared; even in the Påli translation of whatmust have been originally a Gåndhår∆ text, he is addressed as a Yonakaråja,that is, an Ionian king. Yet the text makes this to be an Indian curiosity, forhe is granted the pedigree that all Indian kings must enjoy: he is learned inall the Vedas and Vedåçgas, all the philosophical positions and secularsciences. The text even provides Menander with the most Buddhist ofbackgrounds, for his previous birth story wherein he acquired merit(p¥rvayoga) is related as part of his domestication into the Buddhistliterary horizon. The redactor’s strategy is clearly to refurbish Menander asan exemplary minority figure within the Indian cultural zone, and this hedoes by summing up Menander’s attributes that there was no other king inJambudv∆pa so strong, quick, courageous, and wise. 8 As Fussman hasrecently pointed out, it would be difficult for an Indian reading the currentPåli text of the Milindapañha even to identify Menander as not Indian ineither name or attributes. 9 Nonetheless, the Ionian king’s interest in questioningascetics, coupled with the involvement of Indo-Greeks with Buddhismin Gandhåra and in the Western Satrapies, sets the backgroundsomewhat apart, and appears to be an Indianized version of the Greekcultural icon of the philosopher-prince. Like the appropriation of Greekastrology, though, this is an increasingly occluded part of the representation,so that the “Greekness” of such an icon has been lost by the time thePåli text was composed, even though the Northwest setting remains firmin the text’s eye.Other texts take the KuΩåna developments into account, and we mayobserve that the physical/cultural landscape of Gandhåra played animportant part in its acceptance as authoritatively Buddhist. One of theearliest descriptions is found in the narrative of the Buddha’s travels toKashmir and Gandhåra, a story that survives in places in theM¥lasarvåstivåda-Vinaya, such as the Bhai≈ajyavastu, and in other analo-