structural:scholar_edition, linguistic:translation
Names

The name "Irrawaddy" is derived from Pali. Irāvatī or Airāvatī (Erāvatī in Pali) is the name of the elephant mount of Sakka and Indra in Hinduism. Saka is an important deva in Buddhism and elephants were often a symbol for water and were used as the name for several other rivers, such as the Achiravati. It can also be based on Iravati, who birthed the mythological elephant. The Irrawaddy gives its name to the Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris), which is found in the lower reaches of the river and known to help fishers who practice cast-net fishing. Though called the Irrawaddy dolphin, it has been also found in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean.

During the Age of Discovery, the Irrawaddy was also known to European explorers as the Pegu as the main river of the Hanthawaddy Kingdom, itself known as Pegu after its capital, now romanized as Bago. The modern Pegu or Bago River is a separate river, tributary to the Yangon.

After Rudyard Kipling 's poem, the river is sometimes referred to as ' The Road to Mandalay '.