Buddha (title)

Buddha (Sanskrit=बुद्ध) means the enlightened one or the one who achieve Buddhahood,^[1] as fully comprehended the Four Noble Truths.^[2] Contemporarily, this word is often used to refer Siddharta Gautama, the teacher and the founder of Buddhism (or "the Buddha of the present age"). In other use, the term is applied to those who have reached enlightenment.

Etymology

The word Buddha means "awakened one" or "the enlightened one". "Buddha" is also used as a title for the first awakened being in a Yuga era. In most Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (Pali sammāsambuddha, Sanskrit samyaksaṃbuddha) of the present age.

Hypothetical root budh "perceive" 1. Pali buddha – "understood, enlightened", masculine "the Buddha"; Aśokan (the language of the Inscriptions of Aśoka) Budhe nominative singular; Prakrit buddha – ‘ known, awakened ’; Waigalī būdāī, "truth"; Bashkarīk budh "he heard"; Tōrwālī būdo preterite of bū, "to see, know" from bṓdhati; Phalūṛa búddo preterite of buǰǰ , "to understand" from búdhyatē; Shina Gilgitī dialect budo, "awake"; Gurēsī dialect budyōnṷ intransitive "to wake"; Kashmiri bọ̆du, "quick of understanding (especially of a child)"; Sindhī ḇudho, past participle (passive) of ḇujhaṇu, "to understand" from búdhyatē, West Pahāṛī buddhā, preterite of bujṇā, "to know"; Sinhalese buj (j written for d), budu, bud, but, "the Buddha".^[3]

Buddhavamsa named 25 Buddhas including Gautama in section three until twenty seven, while the twenty eight section lists three Buddhas who lived before the time of Dipankara Buddha.^[4]

References

1. anonymous. "बुद्ध". WordSense.eu. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
2. "The Meaning of the Word Buddha". Parami. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
3. Turner, Sir Ralph Lilley. "buddha 9276; 1962–1985". A comparative dictionary of the Indo-Aryan languages. Digital Dictionaries of South Asia, University of Chicago. London: Oxford University Press. p. 525. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
4. "History of the Buddhas". Buddha Dharma Education Association. Retrieved 8 December 2015.