Re: Tathāgata

Dear Ven.,

Yes, good question. It does seem unproblematic on the surface. But I think people felt that the surface meaning - tathā gata or tathā āgata, thus gone or thus come (in the way of all previous Buddhas) - was too strained, not natural, and as Norman says (as per Steve Collins' reference), quoting Thomas, "in its use in the scriptures there īs no trace of the Sanskrit meaning contained in tathā and gata". 

The earliest form linguistically that we have of the word is the Ardha Māgadhī which is tahāgaya, where the aspirate is reduced to a -h- and the intervocalic stop has been weakened to a -y- glide, so all sorts of interpretations are possible, as I have outlined. Tathā-gata or tathā-āgata are just two possibilities and they are (in my opinion) Sanskritizations of the Prakrit tahāgaya.  I think it was because of this ambiguity (as recognized also by Buddhaghosa who inter alia,  suggests tatha-āgada and tatha-agada, true speech and true medicine) that scholars began looking further afield for possible explanations of the etymology. But yes "Thus-come" or "Thus gone" is certainly a good possibility, as is as is "Come to the truths" which Dmytro suggests. The other possibility is that the word is a homynym and deliberately ambiguous, and several of these meanings are to be evoked simultaneously. This latter theory is what I would argue.

Best wishes,

Bryan