honey in arka shrubs?

[H. Isaacson]

Many thanks for the various suggestions and elucidations that people 
have kindly sent me.  I am more suspicious than before about the 
existence of the word akka, since even the Poona dictionary can come 
up with no other instances of its use than in this subhaa.sita.
The various glosses of different commentators rather suggest that 
they were interpreting an unfamiliar word to suit the context.

If, however, arka is really correct, the verse is still puzzling. 
Is the situation hypothetical?  I can hardly imagine that honey
could ever be found in the wasteland shrub.  On the other hand the
contexts in which the verse is usually quoted are about avoiding
complicated ways of doing things when much simpler ones actually
exist.

Perhaps arka really cannot be Calotropis Gigantea (Linn) R.Br. in 
this context.  It also seems to me unlikely that arka is an ugly 
little shrub in Bhaagavata-Puraa.na X.30.9, where the Gopiis appeal 
to the Cuuta, Priyaala, Panasa, Asana, Kovidaara, Jambu, ARKA, Bilva, 
Bakula, Aamra, Kadamba and Niipa trees to reveal where K.r.s.na has
disappeared.
Dominic Goodall 
(writing from a friend's account---my own is goodall at vax.ox.ac.uk).