Benzaiten (弁才天, 弁財天) is the Japanese name of the goddess
Saraswati. There is also a mighty river in ancient India of
this name (see Vedic Saraswati River). Worship of Benzaiten arrived in Japan during the
6th through 8th centuries, mainly via the Chinese translations of the
Sutra of Golden Light, which has a section devoted to her. She is also
mentioned in the Lotus Sutra.
She is the goddess of everything that flows: words (and knowledge, by extension), speech, eloquence, and music. The characters
used initially to write her name, read "Biancaitian" in Chinese and "Bensaiten" in Japanese (辯才天), reflected her role as the
goddess of eloquence. Because the Sutra of Golden Light promised protection of the
state, in Japan she became a protector-deity, at first of the state and then of people. Lastly, she became one of the
Seven Gods of Fortune, and the Sino-Japanese
characters used to write her name changed to 弁財天 (Benzaiten), which reflects her role in bestowing monetary fortune. Sometimes
she is called Benten, although this name refers to the goddess Lakshmi.
In the Rig-Veda (6.61.7) Sarasvati is credited with killing the three-headed Vritra, also known as Ahi ("snake"). This is probably one of the sources of Sarasvati/Benzaiten's close
association with snakes and dragons in Japan. She is enshrined on the Island of Enoshima in Sagami Bay, about 50 kilometers south of Tokyo, and numerous other locations throughout Japan; and she and a five-headed dragon are the central figures of the Enoshima Engi, a history of
the shrines on Enoshima written by the Japanese Buddhist monk Kokei (皇慶) in AD 1047. According to
Kokei, Benzaiten is the third daughter of the dragon-king of Munetsuchi (無熱池; literally "lake without heat"), known in
Sanskrit as Anavatapta, the lake lying at the center of the
world according to an ancient Buddhist cosmological view.
Benzaiten has been syncretized with some Shinto goddesses.
External links
Sources
- Japan and Indian Asia by Hajime Nakamura. Publisher: Firma KLM, 1961. Publication Date: 1961
- India and Japan: A Study in interaction during 5th cent - 14th century - By Upendra Thakur .
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