|
Benzaiten is the Japanese name of Sarasvati (also read
"Saraswati"), which was originally a mighty river in ancient India (see
Vedic Saraswati River). Later she became the eponymous deity of that river.
Benzaiten arrived in Japan during the 6th through 8th centuries, mainly via
the Chinese translations of the Sutra of Golden Light (金光明經), which has a
section devoted to her. She is also mentioned in the Lotus Sutra.
As a river-deity, she came to be 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
Benzaiten 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 (no change in
pronunciation), which reflects her role in bestowing monetary fortune. She
is enshrined on the Island of Enoshima (江の島) in Sagami Bay, about 50
kilometers south of Tokyo, and she and a dragon are the central figures of
the Enoshima Engi (江嶋縁起), a history of the shrines on Enoshima written by
the Japanese Buddhist monk Kokei (皇慶) in 1047 A.D.
|
