First of all, we have to distinguish between Budha and Buddha. The two names, though so like each other, and therefore constantly mistaken one for the other, have nothing in common but their root. Buddha with two d's, is the participle of budh, and means awakened, enlightened.[53] It is the name given to those who have reached the highest stage of human wisdom, and it is known most generally as the title of Gotama, Sâkya-muni, the founder of Buddhism, whose traditional era dates from 543 B. C. Budha, on the contrary, with one d, means simply knowing, and it became in later times, when the Hindus received from the Greeks a knowledge [pg 116] of the planets, the name of the planet Mercury.

It is well known that the names of the seven days of the week are derived from the names of the planets,[54] and it is equally well known that in Europe the system of weeks and week-days is comparatively of very modern origin. It was not a Greek, nor a Roman, nor a Hindu, but a Jewish or Babylonian invention. The Sabbath (Sabbata) was known and kept at Rome in the first century B. C. with many superstitious practices. It is mentioned by Horace, Ovid, Tibullus (dies Saturni), Persius, Juvenal. Ovid calls it a day “rebus minus apta gerendis.” Augustus (Suet. “Aug.” c. 76) evidently imagined that the Jews fasted on their Sabbath, for he said, “Not even a Jew keeps the fast of the Sabbath so strictly as I have kept this day.” In fact, Josephus (“Contra Apion.” ii. 39) was able to say that there was no town, Greek or not Greek, where the custom observing the seventh day had not spread.[55] It is [pg 117] curious that we find the seventh day, the Sabbath, even under its new Pagan name, as dies Saturni or Kronike, mentioned by Roman and Greek writers, before the names of the other days of the week made their appearance. Tibullus speaks of the day of Saturn, dies Saturni; Julius Frontinus (under Nerva, 96-98) says that Vespasian attacked the Jews on the day of Saturn, dies Saturni; and Justin Martyr (died 165) states that Christ was crucified the day before the day of Kronos, and appeared to his disciples the day after the day of Kronos. He does not use the names of Friday and Sunday. Sunday, as dies Solis, is mentioned by Justin Martyr (“Apolog.” [pg 118] i. 67), and by Tertullian (died 220), the usual name of that day amongst Christians being the Lord's-day, Κυριακή, dominica or dominicus. Clemens of Alexandria (died 220) seems to have been the first who used the names of Wednesday and Friday, Ἑρμοῦ καὶ Ἀφροδίτης ἡμέρα.

It is generally stated, on the authority of Cassius Dio, that the system of counting by weeks and weekdays was first introduced in Egypt, and that at his time, early in the third century, the Romans had adopted it, though but recently. Be this as it may, it would seem that, if Tibullus could use the name of dies Saturni for Saturday, the whole system of weekdays must have been settled and known at Rome in his time. Cassius Dio tells us that the names were assigned to each day διὰ τεσσάρων, by fours; or by giving the first hour of the week to Saturn, then giving one hour to each planet in succession, till the twenty-fifth hour became again the first of the next day. Both systems lead to the same result, as will be seen from the following table:—

Planets.Latin.French.Sanskrit.
1 Saturn 1Dies SaturniSamedi (dies sabbati)Saui-vāra
2 Jupiter 6Dies SolisDimanche (dominicus)Ravi-vāra
3 Mars 4Dies LunæLundiSoma-vāra
4 Sun 2Dies MartisMardiBhauma-vāra
5 Venus 7Dies MercuriiMercrediBrihaspati-vāra
7 Moon 3Dies VenerisVendrediSukra-vāra
Planets.Old Norse.Anglo-Saxon.English.
1 Saturn 1laugardagr (washing day)sätres dägSaturday
2 Jupiter 6sunnadagrsunnan dägSunday
3 Mars 4mânadagrmonan dägMonday
4 Sun 2tysdagrtives dägTuesday
5 Venus 7odhinsdagrvôdenes dägWednesday
6 Mercury 5thôrsdagrthunores dägThursday
7 Moon 3friadagrfrige dägFriday
Planets.Old-High German.Middle-High German.German.
1 Saturn 1sambaztag (sunnûn âband)samztac (sunnen âbent)Samstag (Sonnabend)
2 Jupiter 6sunnûn dagsunnen tacSonntag
3 Mars 3mânin tac (?)mân tacMontag
4 Sun 2ziuwes tac (cies dac)zies tac (zies tac)Dienstag
5 Venus 7wuotanes tac (?) (mittawecha)mittwochMittwoch
6 Mercury 5donares tacdonres tacDonnerstag
7 Moon 3fria dagfrîtacFreitag

After the names of the week-days had once been settled, we have no difficulty in tracing their migration towards the East and towards the West. The Hindus had their own peculiar system of reckoning days and months, but they adopted at a later time the foreign system of counting by weeks of seven days, and assigning a presiding planetary deity to each of the seven days, according to the system described above. As the Indian name of the planet Mercury was Budha, the dies Mercurii was naturally called Budha-vâra but never Buddha-vâra; and the fact that the mother of Mercury was called Maia, and the mother of Buddha Mâyâ, could, therefore, have had no bearing whatever on the name assigned to the Indian Wednesday.[56] The very Buddhists, in Ceylon, distinguish between buddha, the enlightened, and budha, wise, and call Wednesday the day of Budha, not of Buddha.[57] Whether the names of the planets were formed in India independently, or after Greek models, is difficult to settle. The name of Budha, the knowing or the clever, given to the planet Mercury, seems, however, inexplicable except on the latter hypothesis.

Having traced the origin of the Sanskrit name of the dies Mercurii, Budha-vâra, let us now see why the Teutonic nations, though perfectly ignorant of Buddhism, called the same day the day of Wodan.

That the Teutonic nations received the names of the week-days from their Greek and Roman neighbors admits of no doubt. For commercial and military arrangements between Romans and Germans some kind of lingua franca must soon have sprung up, and in it the names of the week-days must have found their place. There would have been little difficulty in explaining the meaning of Sun-day and Mon-day to the Germans, but in order to make them understand the meaning of the other names, some explanations must have been given on the nature of the different deities, in order to enable the Germans to find corresponding names in their own language. A Roman would tell his German friend that dies Veneris meant the day of a goddess who represented beauty and love, and on hearing this the German would at once have thought of his own goddess of love, Freyja, and have called the dies Veneris the day of Freyja or Friday.[58]

If Jupiter was described as the god who wields the thunderbolt, his natural representative in German would be Donar,[59] the Anglo-Saxon Thunar, the Old Norse Thor; and hence the dies Jovis would be called the day of Thor, or Thursday. If the fact that Jupiter was the king of the gods had been mentioned, his proper representative in German would, no doubt, have been Wuotan or Odin.[60] As it was, Wuotan or [pg 121] Odin was chosen as the nearest approach to Mercury, the character which they share in common, and which led to their identification, being most likely their love of travelling through the air,[61] also their granting wealth and fulfilling the wishes of their worshippers, in which capacity Wuotan is known by the name of Wunsch[62] or Wish. We can thus understand how it happened that father and son changed places, for while Mercurius is the son of Jupiter, Wuotan is the father of Donar. Mars, the god of war, was identified with the German Tiu or Ziu, a name which, though originally the same as Zeus in Greek or Dyaus in Sanskrit, took a peculiarly national character among the Germans, and became their god of war.[63]