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302 AN EARLY HISTORY OF ORISSA
Other Qualities : Like the nobility of origin and ancestral line, the brightness, perfection, dignity of the bodily form and appearance is a primary condition to be fulfilled by a prince destined to be a king overlord.
The Mūgapa k kha Jātaka? bears testimony to the fact that bodily infirmity and deformity was considered as an unbearable disgrace to a royal family. The Aśokan legends, as found in the Divyāvadāna and the Mahāvamsa Țikā, bring out the fact that the ugliness of appearance stood greatly in the way of Asoka when he was still a prince. The description in the Hāthigumphā record goes to prove that unlike Asoka, Khāravela as a prince had the very best bodily form glowing with graceful majesty, so lovely as to captivate the heart of grace herself -a Veritable God Vishņu in human garb.
1. Fausboll, No. 538.
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