According to Hindu mythology, Budha is the name given to the planet Mercury, who is considered to be a son of Chandra (the moon) with Tara or Rohini.

He is regarded as the god of merchandize and the defender of the merchants. This god finds representation as someone who is mild, eloquent and has a green colored body. Legend goes that Buddha married Ila, the daughter of Vaivasvata Manu and had a son named Pururava.

A depiction of him in the Ramghur temple shows him holding a scimitar, a club and a shield and riding a winged lion. In other portraits, he holds a sceptre and a lotus while riding a carpet, an eagle or a chariot drawn by lions. Buddha is worshipped as the God who rules on `Budh-war` or Wednesday. In contemporary Hindi, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Kannada and Gujarati, Wednesday is known as Budhvara, while in Tamil and Malayalam it is called Budhan.