The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.117.2

v2.c16.117.2

The fourth has been rendered by "rich in the possession of the purest wealth of heart and desire", in Prinsep's version, but how this meaning was got at, Prinsep does not explain, and I cannot make out. The words *cheta* and *kāja*, coming together, suggest the idea of building *chaityas*; and I think it much more appropriate than Prinsep's rendering. The fifth in Prinsep's version is "of exceeding personal beauty". This meaning has been arrived at by taking the word *saka* to be equal to *sukra* or semen-virile, and that standing for the body; but I have never seen the word *suka* used in the sense of the body; the vowel-mark *u* is illegible in my cast; Prinsep has doubtfully indicated it by a dotted line; I prefer to take *suka* for Śākya, and believe the author meant to say that the prince bore the noble characteristics of Śākya, the founder of the Buddhist religion, and did not wish to praise his personal appearance. The word Saka may of course mean Scythian, but a Buddhist prince would scarcely feel proud of bearing the characteristic marks of a nameless foreigner. If we prefer the reading *suka* to *saka*, the word would mean Śukrāchārya, the preceptor of the Asuras, who was renowned for his wisdom, and, as the Buddhist did not repudiate the celestial host of Hindus, the epithet would imply that the Prince had the characteristic wisdom of the divine sage Śukra.