May 03, 2008
Prayer Gohonzon: Daijikokuten or Daibadatta?
There has been some discussion about the kanji on the upper left, or right facing, side of the Prayer Kito Gohonzon {#037}. This is the usual position of Dajilokuten or Dhritarashtra. However, some think it reads Daibadatta-ten on the Prayer / Kito Honzon. Here is why:
Once again, we are talking about the kanji in the upper right side of the Prayer Gohonzon aka Kito Honzon 祈祷本尊; which is # 037 in the Nichiren Shonin Gohonzon Catalog. That is the usual position for 大持国天王 Dai Ji Koko Ten No. The name is a translation of Maha [Dai] {Great} Dhrita [Ji] {Protector} Rashtra [Koku] {Nation} Deva [Ten] {Heavenly Being} Rajah [No] {King}. His name is also written 持国天 Jikokuten or 持国 Jikoku.
Devadatta is transliterated using four kanji; 提婆達多, Dai {purpose} Ba {old woman} Datsu {reach} ta {many}; read as Daibadatta. On the Kito Honzon / Prayer Gohonzon, Nichiren wrote five kanji: 提多羅吒天. These are Dai {purpose} Ta {many} Ra {silk] Sha {scold} Ten {heavenly being}. This makes no sense, so it must be a transliteration/ The 4th kanji {吒 / zha / sha} was real hard to find. None of the machine translators recognized it. The whole thing appears to read Daitarashaten. Ansanna showed me where this is another way to write Dhritarashtra. In other words, it is not Daijikokuten, nor is it Daibadattaten; it is Daitarashaten; a transliteration of Dhritarashtra + Ten as a translation of Deva.
Dai-jikoku-ten-no 
is usually written 大持国天王, and appears that way, or as 大持国天 on a number of Nichiren's Mandalas. However he also wrote it as 提多羅吒天 on some of them, which sort of looks looks like 提婆達多 [Daibadatta / Devadatta]. However, 提多羅吒天 is actually a transliteration of Dhritarashtra.
Luigi is an SGI member who is in Japan writing a book on Nichiren's Gohonzon. He checks in here from time to time. He gave Don some new data on the Kito Honzon and Ichinen Sanzen Honzon for the Coffeehouse
Gohonzon Shu.
Luigi would better qualified to answer the questions you have. You might want to try to learn kanji. Learning to recognize the ones used in Buddhism, what they mean, the various readings, can be helpful. I do not know all that much, just what I pick up.
You can see that some of them changed. I think Nichiren used Classical Chinese writing with the "go on" 呉音 reading.
Posted by: robin at May 7, 2008 05:30 PMHow did you learn so much Chinese and Japanese and how long did it take you? If I enrolled in an online 4 year college, how proficient reading and writing Chinese could I become? I have strong motivation and study habits but only a fair aptitude for languages. Did Chinese change much since Nichiren's time? Can one transition to reading and writing in Japanese fairly easily?
Posted by: Mark Rogow at May 7, 2008 02:58 AM