Bráhman in Japanese Thought

Abstract This article examines the acculturation and impact of the ancient Indian concept of bráhman , the sacred and transformative speech preserved by Vedic Brahmins within early Japanese Buddhist thought during the Nara period (710–794). Through a philological analysis of epigraphical sources, as well as the Nihon shoki and the Hokke gisho , this paper claims that the thaumaturgical power attributed to Buddhist recitation in Japan was influenced by pre-Buddhist Brahmanical notions concerning the mystical power of Sanskrit sonority. The results of this paper demonstrate how the Chinese sinogram 梵 (Ch. fàn ; Jp. bon ) functioned as a key vehicle for transmitting the sacrality of Indian sound into Japanese Buddhist discourse. The sonority of Buddhism has been interpreted by the Japanese elites ever since to harness the ancestral mystic power of Indian Brahmins, bráhman , which, notwithstanding the lack of Brahmanical instruction in Japanese, they acculturated as a significant concept through their historical contact and fascination toward the chanting of Indian Brahmins.