1901, Isaac Groneman, translated by A. Dolk, The Hindu Ruins in the Plain of Parambanan, translation of original in Dutch:
The urna is not worn by all, nor the monastic dress of the magnificent image of the Buddhistic prince on the right side of the great Buddha in the chanḍi Mĕndut.
1916, “Notes on Chinese statuary”, in The Museum Journal, volume 7, University of Pennsylvania University Museum, page 156:
The ûrna or mark upon the forehead and the long pierced ear lobes so generally characteristic of Buddhist images are not present in this instance.
2009, David Reed, The Rough Guide to Nepal, page 107:
Between the eyes is a curl of hair (urna), one of the identifying features of a Buddha, and the thing that looks like a nose is a miraculous light emanating from the urna (it can also be interpreted as the Nepali figure “one”, conveying the unity of all things).
Probably from *urc-na, with simplification of the cluster.[1] Ernout and Meillet view this word, urceus, orca and Greek ὕρχη(húrkhē) (other words for vessels) as all related somehow via borrowing (with the exact source and pathway unclear).[2] Bennett 1907 indicates that the length of the vowel in the first syllable is not established, noting that the Italian descendant could be a learned form, and hypothesizes that the word is derived from a weak grade of the root arc-,[3] presumably referring to the root found in arceō, arca, and arx, which is now reconstructed as *h₂erk-. However, Schrijver 1991 argues that word-initial *HRC- normally has a reflex of aRC in Latin (as in argentum from *h₂r̥ǵn̥to-),[4] which would exclude Bennett's favored etymology.
By an alternative derivation, from ūrō(“burn, singe”) in reference to the firing of the clay in their creation.
Ernout, Alfred, Meillet, Antoine (1985) “urna”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots (in French), 4th edition, with additions and corrections of Jacques André, Paris: Klincksieck, published 2001
Charles E. Bennett (1907) “Hidden Quantity”, in The Latin Language – a historical outline of its sounds, inflections, and syntax, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, page 71
Schrijver, Peter C. H. (1991) The reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European laryngeals in Latin (Leiden studies in Indo-European; 2), Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, →ISBN, page 72
Further reading
“urna”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“urna”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
urna in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
“urna”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers