Iap,apeta from the Hebrew "an outlook hill," or rather from the Aramaic form 7734, whence also comes the Assyrian form Samirina.
The processes of the mandible (iap, pap) are characteristic of this type, and of the anseres.
Megasthenes draws a distinction between the Brahmans (Bpaxµ.aves) and the Sarmanae (Iap,u6.pat), from which some scholars have inferred that the Buddhist Sarmanas were a recognized class fifty years before the council of Asoka.