As my friend, Dr. Burnell, can no longer represent his own view, it seems right here to print the latest remarks of his on the subject that I can find. They are in a letter from Tanjore, dated March 10, 1880:—
"I think I overlooked a remark of yours regarding my observation that the e in Pagode was pronounced, and that this was a difficulty in deriving it from Bhagavat. In modern Portuguese e is not sounded, but verses show that it was in the 16th century. Now, if there is a final vowel in Pagoda, it must come from Bhagavati; but though the goddess is and was worshipped to a certain extent in S. India, it is by other names (Amma, &c.). Gundert and Kittel give 'Pogodi' as a name of a Durga temple, but assuredly this is no corruption of Bhagavati, but Pagoda! Malayālam and Tamil are full of such adopted words. Bhagavati is little used, and the goddess is too insignificant to give rise to pagoda as a general name for a temple.
"Bhagavat can only appear in the S. Indian languages in its (Skt.) nominative form bhagavān (Tamil paγuvān). As such, in Tamil and Malayālam it equals Vishnu or Siva, which would suit. But pagoda can't be got out of bhagavān; and if we look to the N. Indian forms, bhagavant, &c., there is the difficulty about the e, to say nothing about the nt."
The use of the word by Barbosa at so early a date as 1516, and its application to a particular class of temples must not be overlooked.
a.—
1516.—"There is another sect of people among the Indians of Malabar, which is called Cujaven [Kushavan, Logan, Malabar, i. 115].... Their business is to work at baked clay, and tiles for covering houses, with which the temples and Royal buildings are roofed.... Their idolatry and their idols are different from those of the others; and in their houses of prayer they perform a thousand acts of witchcraft and necromancy; they call their temples pagodes, and they are separate from the others."—Barbosa, 135. This is from Lord Stanley of Alderley's translation from a Spanish MS. The Italian of Ramusio reads: "nelle loro orationi fanno molte strigherie e necromãtie, le quali chiamano Pagodes, differenti assai dall' altre" (Ramusio, i. f. 308v.). In the Portuguese MS. published by the Lisbon Academy in 1812, the words are altogether absent; and in interpolating them from Ramusio the editor has given the same sense as in Lord Stanley's English.
1516.—"In this city of Goa, and all over India, there are an infinity of ancient buildings of the Gentiles, and in a small island near this, called Dinari, the Portuguese, in order to build the city, have destroyed an ancient temple called Pagode, which was built with marvellous art, and with ancient figures wrought to the greatest perfection in a certain black stone, some of which remain standing, ruined and shattered, because these Portuguese care nothing about them. If I can come by one of these shattered images I will send it to your Lordship, that you may perceive how much in old times sculpture was esteemed in every part of the world."—Letter of Andrea Corsali to Giuliano de'Medici, in Ramusio, i. f. 177.
1543.—"And with this fleet he anchored at Coulão (see [QUILON]) and landed there with all his people. And the Governor (Martim Afonso de Sousa) went thither because of information he had of a pagode which was quite near in the interior, and which, they said, contained much treasure.... And the people of the country seeing that the Governor was going to the pagode, they sent to offer him 50,000 pardaos not to go."—Correa, iv. 325-326.
1554.—"And for the monastery of Santa Fee 845,000 reis yearly, besides the revenue of the Paguodes which His Highness bestowed upon the said House, which gives 600,000 reis a year...."—Botelho, Tombo, in Subsidios, 70.
1563.—"They have (at Baçaim) in one part a certain island called Salsete, where there are two pagodes or houses of idolatry."—Garcia, f. 211v.