The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.92.1

v1.c10.92.1

The annals of the Śākya race as preserved in Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan and Chinese, represent them to have belonged to the foremost of the Aryan race, the Kṣatriyas, whose mode of life, if any faith is to be reposed on those records, was entirely different from that of the Paṭuas and of the Kukis. When Siddhārtha retired from home, he went forth, it is said, in the full court-dress of a prince, which he exchanged for the humble yellow vestment of a hermit, when he arrived at a neighbouring wood. If the sculptures are to be accepted without any qualification, the whole of these records must be entirely rejected, and we must believe that kings and princes, as shewn on Mr. Fergusson's plate, XXXI, went about with their bodies all uncovered, while the priests were clothed to the neck with scrupulous care; that Siddhārtha gave up a narrow *dhuti* for something that covered his person from neck to ankles; and that the attire of Māyādevī, the mother of Buddha, was somewhat less ample than the traditional "fig leaf" of Eve, consisting, as it does in sculptures, solely of a narrow bead cincture below the waist. The large Amarāvatī stone in the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, represents Māyādevī reclining on what appears like a stuffed cushion spread on a cot and provided with a large pillow or *tākiā*; she is attended by armed male guards, **[ 87 ]** and waiting maids holding *cauris*;