TATHĀGATA. In pre-Buddhist India, the term tathāgata designated a liberated sage. Unlike other titles for Gotama Buddha common in Pali scriptures such as bhagavan (blessed one) and jina (victorious one), the Buddha often used the term tathāgata to refer to himself. As George Bond has noted, three etymologies for it are prominent in Theravāda texts: (1) tathā-gato, meaning "one who has gone thus," who has attained nirvāṇa like all prior buddhas, freed from the conditioned, distorted mentalities and sufferings of mundane existence; (2) tatha-āgato, meaning "one who has come thus," who has reached the attainment achieved by all buddhas of prior ages, propelling him to come as the universal teacher for this age; and (3) tatha-āgato, meaning one who has come to the final truth of things and shows the way to that truth.

To call Gotama Buddha tath...