12/02/2020
In classical Japanese, India is known as “tenjiku”, which translates as “the land of heaven”. The term is derived from the Chinese word “Tianzhu” and goes on to say how the Japanese culture appreciates the Indian culture.
It is said that Indian ideas, philosophies, and cultures first travelled to China through Shakyamuni Tathagata Buddha who went to China and spread the teachings. From there the teachings reached all parts of the world, Japan to be in particular.
Linguistics
It is said that many Japanese words find not only their base in China, but it is also important to know that Sanskrit and Japanese ideology is heavily influenced by Hindu Gods who have paved their way into the Japanese mythologies. Also, here is a list of both Japanese and Hindu Gods who perform the same principal functions in both ideologies.
Yama and Enma
Apsara and Tennin
King of Gods – Indra andTaishakuten
Ganesha (Ganapati) and Kangiten
Kubera and Bishamonten:
Garuda and Karura
Not only this, many such references can be seen, especially in and around the Kansai region. In Japan, around 20 Gods are worshiped, many of them can be seen in the Kyoto region, which is known as the city of a thousand shrines.
It might also surprise you that not only this, there are hundreds of shrines of Goddess Saraswati alone in that country, along with many representations of Lakshmi, Indra, Brahma, Ganesha, Garuda and others. Even deities not worshipped in India are paid reverence to there.
Also legend says that once, an Indian girl named Sujatha saved a starving Buddha --- the girl had fed him milk gruel to save his life and soon after the name Sujatha became so famous that it is even turned into a dairy product ‘Sujatha’ which is sold by Meiraku.
As mentioned above, a number of words in the Japanese language find their roots in Sanskrit. It is also unbelievable to know that the 6th-century Siddham script is preserved in Japan, though it is no longer found in India
Not only this, some Japanese tombs are adorned with the Sanskrit alphabet and these are considered holy in the Japanese tradition.
Also, karma is an equally important concept in Japan like it is in India --- In Japan, the saying goes like “bachi ga ataru”, which means that “something bad will happen to you if your actions cause harm to anybody.”