An Inscription That Names the Sakyas

What lifted Piprahwa from a rich find to a sensation was writing. One of the steatite caskets carries a short inscription in early Brahmi characters, and its most widely accepted reading states that it is the relic-shrine of the Buddha, the Blessed One, of the Sakyas, set up by his brethren together with their sisters, children and wives. If that reading holds, the deposit is a share of the Buddha's cremated remains buried by his own clan, the Sakyas of Kapilavastu, making Piprahwa one of the most direct material links to the historical Buddha ever found, and a strong argument for identifying the site with ancient Kapilavastu itself.

The inscription has been contested. A few scholars have proposed alternative readings, and the notorious forgeries of the surveyor Alois Fuhrer, active in the same region and years, cast a long shadow of suspicion over everything nearby. Yet no convincing case for forgery of the Piprahwa casket has ever been made, and Peppe's meticulous record has kept the find's credibility largely intact.