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sanskritintheeveryday · 7 years

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Hinduism in Shin Megami Tensei

Shin Megami Tensei is a JRPG. It is set in the near future, when the world has been wrecked by a demon invasion. There are two factions: Order of Messiah and Ring of Gaea. One follows YHVH (he’s like God, if he were a jerk) and the other Lucifer. Their factions are Law and Chaos, respectively. Law will bring about peace and not a lot of deaths, but everyone will be under a nasty dictator. Chaos will bring freedom for everyone, but there will be Social Darwinism and a lot of bloodshed. In the middle is the Neutral alignment, harder to play, but in my opinion, much more satisfying and masochistic.

There are four heroes: the protagonist, the Chaos Hero, the Law Hero, and the Heroine. The game pretty muchly follows whether you want to help the dictator God or the I-discard-the-weak Lucifer, or neither, and your adventures as you go about this.

A lot of the demons were derived from many religions-to have a sampling, Aztec Mythology, Haitian Mythology, Inuit Mythology, Irish Mythology, Occult, et cetera. And now for the relevant part: some of the demons are derived from Hindu mythology, and two of the bosses you fight are a Hindu god and a Hindu demon.

Some issues: is it all right to portray a Hindu god like this, in a game. First, games in general. I believe it depends a lot on the game, and what portrayal the gods are given in that game. For example, see the post about the Ramayana movie. It was well-done and accurate, and I believe that when any form of art at all, even a game, is done accurately and well, it is all right to portray gods in games. A game is a piece of art, just like a beautiful painting or a movie. A game takes months or years to do correctly, takes a whole team of people, and is a blend of art, music, and player interaction. Making a great game takes high scores in all of these categories, whereas art and music are less busy. When you make a beautiful piece of art, you don’t have to worry about what music will be played as viewers view it.

(This is the part most relevant to this blog, but it’s highly recommended to read the analysis under the break first.) This being said, whether something insults a person is very dependent on the person. Your mileage will vary any time a religion near and dear to one’s heart is portrayed in any way. In Valmiki’s Ramayana, first Vishnu-as-Rama had his wife go into a flaming pyre. Then, in the Uttara Kanda, he abandoned her, and did several actions that were out of character for him. This Uttara Kanda was added after Valmiki made the original, and authors like Kalidasa did not like this addition. So any time a god is portrayed, there is the potential for insults. How insulting a material is heavily depends on how much research was put into the making of said material.

That’s about games and gods in general, so how about Shin Megami Tensei? Does Vishnu’s addition make sense? I believe it does. This is a game of the war of the gods, and if you include Atzec gods and Egyptian gods, then the Hindu gods should make an appearance. Otherwise, it would imply the Hindu gods don't really care enough about the world to do anything about it.

Vishnu is in the Tokyo Government Offices fighting against his enemy, Ravana and his son Indrajit who are on the side of Chaos. He will join you if you are Law, and fight against you if Neutral or Chaos

Is this consistent with Vishnu? He is the preserver of the universe and protects it whenever there is evil or chaos. It’s not known how much Vishnu knows about how evil YHVH really is. YHVH’s zealots mostly said the world will be peaceful once Lucifer is defeated. Considering that Vishnu will fight against you if you are Chaos (the weak should be abandoned) or Neutral, he will fight you. This is understandable, because it doesn’t seem like Vishnu would really want to help the protagonist bring chaos and bloodshed to the world.

Shouldn’t Vishnu know that YHVH is a nasty, murdering, jerk? Technically he should. However, this is mostly a fight between YHVH and Lucifer and it’s not known how much Vishnu is involved in the war. To him, you may be the bigger threat because your added power will give Ravana and Indrajit (and Lucifer) a huge boost, if Chaos aligned, or just throw everything off completely, if Neutral.

In addition, YHVH has said a power above him has set it to where you the hero will be reincarnated in many worlds to defeat him. Does Vishnu know this? If so, maybe he wants to minimize casualties as best he can. His alignment is Neutral after all. Still though, Vishnu’s motivations are left vague. The player can draw conclusions on whose side Vishnu is really on. These conclusions will decide how insulting this is to you.

Under the break is an analysis of characters, designs, their moves, entries and how accurate they are, several words and phrases from other persona games that references to Sanskrit, etc.

Persona 4:

There is some Sanskrit in Persona 4. There are some items, called Soma, Hiranya, and Amrita. Soma is from the Sanskrit word सोम. The item restores the party's HP and SP. सोम was fermented juice offered to the gods, and drunk by priests.

Hiranya is from the Sanskrit word हिरण्य meaning golden. It cures all ailments but Down and Unconscious for one party member.

Amrita is from the Sanskrit word अमृत. The item cures all ailments but Down and Unconscious for all party members. अमृत is from the Sanskrit root, मृ, to die. The Past Passive Participle of मृ is मृत. The अ prefix means “un”; so अमृत means “un-dead”.

Through the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei series, there are demons you can fight, or are forced to fight via random encounters. These are the demons derived from Hindu mythology:

First, in Shin Megami Tensei.

Apsaras, अप्सरसः, are cloud spirits in Hindu mythology. They are the court musicians of Indra. In the game, they are Yoma race-messengers of gods. That’s accurate.

The in-game dictionary reads as: "Origin: India. Nymphs that dwell with Indra. They are similar to the Greek Nymphs. They tempt ascetics and fall in love with humans. They also carry fallen soldiers to heaven, like the Valkyries of Norse lore."—Shin Megami Tensei A-Mode DDS Dictionary

This is mostly correct. The last part seems to be more about the Valkyries than the Apsaras. As for the art, the Apsaras are usually shown in more revealing clothing. The yellow skin and green hair is also weird, and should be chalked up to artistic liberties.

Ananta, शेषनाग, also called अनन्त शेषनाग (Endless Shesanaga), the king of all nagas, and the bed on which Vishnu rests. In the game, they are of the Dragon race-dragon-like creatures.

The in-game dictionary reads, "Origin: India. One of the kings of the Nagas. It is a giant serpent with a thousand heads, whose name means 'infinite.' It sleeps under the earth and will watch over the end of the world with Vishnu. Until the time comes, Ananta will protect Vishnu for eons in the sea of milk."

As for the art, Śeṣanāga is a big snake with many heads, and slate blue and green are good colors. Śeṣanāga usually has his heads upright in a cobra-like formation though.

Asura- असुर. They wrestle with the Devas over power. In the Vedas, Indra and the other gods along with the evil demons are called Asuras. In-game, Asura is of the Tenma race-Heavenly Demons. They can be guardian or protector deities.

The in-game dicitonary reads, "Origin: India. The supreme god of Vajrayana. He is also known as Maha Vairocana, the god of fire and light. He is the universe himself and exists within the smallest of things. He is portrayed sitting meditating on a white lotus, in the center of both realms."

This entry has less to do with Hinduism and more to do with in-game lore. In Shin Megami Tensei, Asura is Lucifer’s right-hand man, the final boss for Law and Neutral players. Asura mocks the player, and once he dies, balance is restored to the world (if you also kill the corresponding Law counterpart).

The art seems to be nice. The pose he makes is reminiscent of Hindu poses.

Garuda- गरुड. A large legendary bird-like creature, the mount of Lord Vishnu. In the game, he is of the Avian race-sacred birds, of which Garuda is the top ranked.

The in-game dictionary reads, "Origin: India. Vishnu's half-man, half-bird mount. His mother became a slave after losing a bet with the Nagas. To save her, he stole Amrita from the gods to exchange it for her freedom. On his way back, he was intercepted by Vishnu, but Brahma intervened. Garuda became Vishnu's mount in exchange for immortality. Afterwards, he devised a plan to take his mother back and became a scourge of the Nagas. In Buddhism, Garuda is known as one of the 28 attendants of Senju-Kannon."

This is correct. I am not so sure about the Buddhism part though.

Hanuman