Buddha in Chinese script

[N. Ganesan]

>The word was sometime translated sometime transliterated. When
>transliterated it of course would sound completely different in different
>parts of Chinaeven when written with same character.
>When translated it will of course only carry the meaning of awakening
>without the sound connection.
>The pronounciation of same charecters changes in time as well as locally.

  Would Xuan Zang (Hsuan Tsang) around 640 A.D.write Buddha as
  Pu-ta or Po-ta?? It does not appear that he travelled south
  of Kanchi where he stayed. He must have heard about Potiyil/Potikai from
  Kanchi or north of Kanchi.

[...]

>I am very interested if you will find more on Malaya in Sanskrit sources
>since for years I work on Lankavatara Sutra in its first (second) Chinese
>translation which in Chinese says that it is being delivered in the city of
>Lanka in Malaya mountains on the shore of the South [China] Sea.
>(I am just looking for more connections with Lankasuka kingdom [and Kedah
>inscriptions] in various Chinese sources from the early A.D.)

  I remember Dr. Jayabarathi's mentioning of Malaya, Lankasuka, ...
  Indians named many places in South East Asia after Indian placenames.
  eg., Vietnam as Amaravati, etc., This Malaya in SE Asia must be one such
  naming.

  However, Potalaka in Hsuan Tsang's narrative is said to be near the
  Malaya mountain range in the extreme South of India.
  The Malaya mountains in South India are mentioned from Ramayana
  onwards.

Dr. Anne Monius informed me:
*a variety of Chinese folktales speak of Hsuan Tsang bringing
*Potalaka mountain with him from South India and depositing it in Western
*China.

   Note that these tales also place Potalaks in the South India.
   Does the Journey to the West novel speak of Potalaka?

More later,
N. Ganesan