26o ON THE RELIGION ANO 



name Paulinus informs us may be written Godama 

 or Gaud am a, and literally iignifies cow-herd, but 

 metaphorically king*. It has however been mentioned 

 to me, on the authority of a pundit belonging to our 

 fupreme native court in Bengal^ that the meaning of 

 Go DAM A is eminently wife, a fage. Somona, the name 

 prefixed to this appellation by M. De la Loubere, 

 fignifies that he had adopted the drefs of a Rahan, as 

 I was informed by Mue-daung Seitagio, an in- 

 telligent Siammefe painter at Amarapura. The fame 

 tircumflance is implied by Bura-zayndu, one of the 

 moft common titles bellowed on him in the Burma 

 empire : for his images are almort always in the drefs 

 o^ 'd Rahan. Many other appellations are given to 

 Godama from the poftures in which he is reprefented 

 in his various images. Thus a famous image at Pougan 

 is named A nan da, which fignifies plenty, from its 

 iuppofcd efficacy in producing that bleffing. 



In the Pali language, and among the Cingalefe, a 

 common name for this divinity is Bouddha. This 

 Mr. Chambers writesBuDDOut, Paumnus Budha^J;, 

 and from thefe two authors I have collefted the fol- 

 lowing corruptions of that name. Budda, or Butta, 

 of Beausobre and Bochart, Bod of the Arabians^ 

 BoDDA of Edrisi, BotTT* of Clemens Alexandrinus, 

 and Baouth of M. Gentil. This name is, faid to 

 bean appellation expreflive of wifdom||. T can readily 

 agree with thefe two learned men, that the Pout of 

 the Siammefe^ Pout, Pott, Poti, Pot of the natives 

 of Thibet, and the But of the Cochinchinefe, may alfo 

 be corruptions of Bouddha. The Siammefe painter 

 told me, that the mod common name for Godama 

 among his countrymen is Pouttee Sat, which he 

 interpreted into Buraloun, a common appellation 

 among the Burmas. Among thefe indeed I very rarely 

 heard Bouddha ufed, probably becaufe Buraloun has 



the 



* Mus. Borg. page 8. + Afiatick Refcarchcs, I, 142. 



jl Paulinus Mus. Borg. page 71. 

 }j Stephens's tranflation of Faria y Souza, II, page 4, 

 chap. 19, par. 26. 



