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154-446: Airavata ( Sanskrit : ऐरावत , romanized :  airāvata , lit.   'belonging to Iravati ') is a divine elephant, characterized by four tusks, seven trunks and a white complexion. He is the "king of elephants" also serves as the main vehicle for the deity Indra . It is also called 'abhra-Matanga', meaning "elephant of the clouds"; 'Naga-malla', meaning "the fighting elephant"; and 'Arkasodara', meaning "brother of

308-518: A December 16, 2023 survey conducted by Nikkei Entertainment , the combined fanbase of the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series within Japan has an average age of 32 years, and a male-to-female ratio that skews 40:60. Japanese website 4Gamer.net referred to the series as one of Japan's biggest role-playing franchises. UGO Networks writer K. Thor Jensen cited the first Megami Tensei game as

462-670: A European branch, they publish titles in the region through third-party companies such as Ghostlight and NIS America . Their latest partnership, after their deal with NIS America ended with the publication of Odin Sphere Leifthrasir , was with European publishing firm Deep Silver to publish multiple titles in the region, including Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse and Persona 5 . Atlus has occasionally published titles digitally in Europe. Prior to its popularity in

616-479: A North American audience, including removing references to Japanese culture and changing one character from Japanese to African-American. This, and other changes were fixed in the re-release on the PlayStation Portable. The first Persona 2 title, Innocent Sin , needed to be passed over due to shortage of manpower and the fact that development was focused on the second title, Eternal Punishment . Nocturne

770-418: A dead language in the most common usage of the term. Pollock's notion of the "death of Sanskrit" remains in this unclear realm between academia and public opinion when he says that "most observers would agree that, in some crucial way, Sanskrit is dead." Megami Tensei The series was originally based on Digital Devil Story , a science fiction novel series by Aya Nishitani. The series takes its name from

924-477: A disadvantage in the modern gaming market. Early entries on the PlayStation were also blocked by Sony of America's then-current approval policies. The first title in the franchise to be localized was Jack Bros. ; the first role-playing game in the franchise to receive an overseas release was the first Persona game. This was done to give Atlus' North American branch a flagship RPG franchise that could compete with

1078-559: A duology titled Digital Devil Saga ( Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner in Japan) was created based around similar systems to Nocturne , and was also intended as a more accessible gaming experience. Two tactical role-playing games have been developed by Atlus for the DS under the Devil Survivor moniker: the original Devil Survivor and Devil Survivor 2 . Both have received expanded ports for

1232-584: A female lead or the ability to choose a lead's gender is not out of the question, some staff feel that Shin Megami Tensei lead roles are better suited to a male character. Throughout its lifetime, the series has incorporated elements of Gnosticism , various world mythologies and religions including Christianity and Buddhism , early science fiction, Jungian psychology and archetypes , occultism, goth , punk , and cyberpunk. The science fiction and fantasy elements are brought together and unified through

1386-433: A focus on Indian philosophies and Sanskrit. Though written in a number of different scripts, the dominant language of Hindu texts has been Sanskrit. It or a hybrid form of Sanskrit became the preferred language of Mahayana Buddhism scholarship; for example, one of the early and influential Buddhist philosophers, Nagarjuna (~200 CE), used Classical Sanskrit as the language for his texts. According to Renou, Sanskrit had

1540-505: A full fantasy setting. Two more recent notable departures were Strange Journey , which shifted the focus to Antarctica to portray the threat on a global scale, and Shin Megami Tensei IV , which included a medieval-stage society existing separately from a modern-day Tokyo. The Devil Summoner games take the form of modern-day detective stories as opposed to post-apocalyptic settings. The series title translates as "Reincarnation of

1694-581: A language competed with numerous, less exact vernacular Indian languages called Prakritic languages ( prākṛta - ). The term prakrta literally means "original, natural, normal, artless", states Franklin Southworth . The relationship between Prakrit and Sanskrit is found in Indian texts dated to the 1st millennium CE. Patañjali acknowledged that Prakrit is the first language, one instinctively adopted by every child with all its imperfections and later leads to

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1848-543: A large 3D environment. The 2D/first person viewpoint continued until Nocturne , which switched to a third-person perspective. This was done due to a condition similar to car sickness called "3D sickness" with first person shooters in Japan at the time: the developers wanted something for players to focus on. A first-person perspective was reintroduced in Strange Journey , and incorporated into IV ' s battles along with navigable 3D environments. Each title focuses on

2002-643: A limited role in the Theravada tradition (formerly known as the Hinayana) but the Prakrit works that have survived are of doubtful authenticity. Some of the canonical fragments of the early Buddhist traditions, discovered in the 20th century, suggest the early Buddhist traditions used an imperfect and reasonably good Sanskrit, sometimes with a Pali syntax, states Renou. The Mahāsāṃghika and Mahavastu, in their late Hinayana forms, used hybrid Sanskrit for their literature. Sanskrit

2156-454: A natural part of the earliest Vedic language, and that these developed in the centuries after the composition had been completed, and as a gradual unconscious process during the oral transmission by generations of reciters. The primary source for this argument is internal evidence of the text which betrays an instability of the phenomenon of retroflexion, with the same phrases having sandhi-induced retroflexion in some parts but not other. This

2310-479: A negative evidence to Pollock's hypothesis, but it is not positive evidence. A closer look at Sanskrit in the Indian history after the 12th century suggests that Sanskrit survived despite the odds. According to Hanneder, On a more public level the statement that Sanskrit is a dead language is misleading, for Sanskrit is quite obviously not as dead as other dead languages and the fact that it is spoken, written and read will probably convince most people that it cannot be

2464-546: A pan-Indo-Aryan accessibility to information and knowledge in the ancient and medieval times, in contrast to the Prakrit languages which were understood just regionally. It created a cultural bond across the subcontinent. As local languages and dialects evolved and diversified, Sanskrit served as the common language. It connected scholars from distant parts of South Asia such as Tamil Nadu and Kashmir, states Deshpande, as well as those from different fields of studies, though there must have been differences in its pronunciation given

2618-573: A refined and standardized grammatical form that emerged in the mid-1st millennium BCE and was codified in the most comprehensive of ancient grammars, the Aṣṭādhyāyī ('Eight chapters') of Pāṇini . The greatest dramatist in Sanskrit, Kālidāsa , wrote in classical Sanskrit, and the foundations of modern arithmetic were first described in classical Sanskrit. The two major Sanskrit epics, the Mahābhārata and

2772-510: A remake of Megami Tensei II . In many of these earlier games, staff members at Atlus had cameos. The majority of the Megami Tensei series is developed by Atlus' R&D Department 1. Other developers have been involved with the series: these include Multimedia Intelligence Transfer ( Last Bible series), Lancarse ( Strange Journey ), CAVE ( Imagine ) and Nex Entertainment ( Nine ), and Arc System Works ( Persona 4 Arena ). Most of

2926-534: A restrained language from which archaisms and unnecessary formal alternatives were excluded". The Classical form of the language simplified the sandhi rules but retained various aspects of the Vedic language, while adding rigor and flexibilities, so that it had sufficient means to express thoughts as well as being "capable of responding to the future increasing demands of an infinitely diversified literature", according to Renou. Pāṇini included numerous "optional rules" beyond

3080-439: A similar phonetic structure to Tamil. Hock et al. quoting George Hart state that there was influence of Old Tamil on Sanskrit. Hart compared Old Tamil and Classical Sanskrit to arrive at a conclusion that there was a common language from which these features both derived – "that both Tamil and Sanskrit derived their shared conventions, metres, and techniques from a common source, for it is clear that neither borrowed directly from

3234-681: A trilogy of science-fantasy novels written by Aya Nishitani during the 1980s. The media expansion was handled by Nishitani and his publisher Tokuma Shoten . The game was developed at Atlus and published by Bandai Namco (then Namco). Although they wanted to incorporate as much of the original story as possible, the limited capabilities of the Famicom made this goal nearly impossible. The series' creators were Kouji Okada (credited as Cozy Okada in English), Ginichiro Suzuki, and Ginichiro's son Kazunari. The game proved popular in Japan, and effectively launched

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3388-659: A wider audience and reinvigorate the Megami Tensei franchise, hiring Suzuhito Yasuda as character designer for this purpose. Some monsters in the second Devil Survivor were designed by manga artist Mohiro Kitoh . For a long time, the Megami Tensei franchise was not exported to western territories despite there being a recognized market. The original reasons were the heavy religious themes and symbols used, which were considered taboo in western game markets, and Nintendo's strict content guidelines for overseas releases. Later, many of these early works were prevented from coming overseas due to their age, which would have put them at

3542-692: Is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages . It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late Bronze Age . Sanskrit is the sacred language of Hinduism , the language of classical Hindu philosophy , and of historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism . It was a link language in ancient and medieval South Asia, and upon transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia, East Asia and Central Asia in

3696-710: Is a recruitable character in the Megami Tensei video game series. Airavata is referenced in the song "The Animal Tent" on the album The Circus by The Venetia Fair : Here comes Airavata; the elephant controls the rainclouds, His skin the rumbling earth (Airavata!) Airavata is the name of the Volvo bus service that Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation provides. Sanskrit language Sanskrit ( / ˈ s æ n s k r ɪ t / ; attributively 𑀲𑀁𑀲𑁆𑀓𑀾𑀢𑀁 , संस्कृत- , saṃskṛta- ; nominally संस्कृतम् , saṃskṛtam , IPA: [ˈsɐ̃skr̩tɐm] )

3850-459: Is akin to that of Latin and Ancient Greek in Europe. Sanskrit has significantly influenced most modern languages of the Indian subcontinent , particularly the languages of the northern, western, central and eastern Indian subcontinent. Sanskrit declined starting about and after the 13th century. This coincides with the beginning of Islamic invasions of South Asia to create, and thereafter expand

4004-536: Is also representative of the drastic changes a location undergoes during a game. The concept of reincarnation was also included in narratives and gameplay mechanics to tie in with these themes. The series' overarching title has been truncated to " MegaTen " by series fans. Originating in Japan, the abbreviation has become a common term for the series among its fans. Its subseries Persona is named as " Nǚshén Yìwénlù " ( simplified Chinese : 女神异闻录 ; traditional Chinese : 女神異聞錄 ; lit. 'Alternate Tale of

4158-428: Is emphasized in the mythology of Indra, who rides the elephant Airavata when he defeats Vritra . It is believed that the elephant guards one of the points of compass. Airavata also stands at the entrance to Svarga , Indra's palace . In addition, the eight guardian deities who preside over the points of the compass each sit on an elephant ( world elephant ). Each of these deities has an elephant that takes part in

4312-452: Is found in the writing of Bharata Muni , the author of the ancient Natya Shastra text. The early Jain scholar Namisādhu acknowledged the difference, but disagreed that the Prakrit language was a corruption of Sanskrit. Namisādhu stated that the Prakrit language was the pūrvam ('came before, origin') and that it came naturally to children, while Sanskrit was a refinement of Prakrit through "purification by grammar". Sanskrit belongs to

4466-524: Is rare in the later version of the language. The Homerian Greek, like Ṛg-vedic Sanskrit, deploys simile extensively, but they are structurally very different. The early Vedic form of the Sanskrit language was far less homogenous compared to the Classical Sanskrit as defined by grammarians by about the mid-1st millennium BCE. According to Richard Gombrich—an Indologist and a scholar of Sanskrit, Pāli and Buddhist Studies—the archaic Vedic Sanskrit found in

4620-479: Is taken along with evidence of controversy, for example, in passages of the Aitareya-Āraṇyaka (700 BCE), which features a discussion on whether retroflexion is valid in particular cases. The Ṛg-veda is a collection of books, created by multiple authors. These authors represented different generations, and the mandalas 2 to 7 are the oldest while the mandalas 1 and 10 are relatively the youngest. Yet,

4774-580: Is the predominant language of one of the largest collection of historic manuscripts. The earliest known inscriptions in Sanskrit are from the 1st century BCE, such as the Ayodhya Inscription of Dhana and Ghosundi-Hathibada (Chittorgarh) . Though developed and nurtured by scholars of orthodox schools of Hinduism, Sanskrit has been the language for some of the key literary works and theology of heterodox schools of Indian philosophies such as Buddhism and Jainism. The structure and capabilities of

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4928-526: The Bhagavata Purana , the Panchatantra and many other texts are all in the Sanskrit language. The Classical Sanskrit with its exacting grammar was thus the language of the Indian scholars and the educated classes, while others communicated with approximate or ungrammatical variants of it as well as other natural Indian languages. Sanskrit, as the learned language of Ancient India, thus existed alongside

5082-568: The Dalai Lama , the Sanskrit language is a parent language that is at the foundation of many modern languages of India and the one that promoted Indian thought to other distant countries. In Tibetan Buddhism, states the Dalai Lama, Sanskrit language has been a revered one and called legjar lhai-ka or "elegant language of the gods". It has been the means of transmitting the "profound wisdom of Buddhist philosophy" to Tibet. The Sanskrit language created

5236-613: The Indo-European family of languages . It is one of the three earliest ancient documented languages that arose from a common root language now referred to as Proto-Indo-European : Other Indo-European languages distantly related to Sanskrit include archaic and Classical Latin ( c. 600 BCE–100 CE, Italic languages ), Gothic (archaic Germanic language , c.  350 CE ), Old Norse ( c. 200 CE and after), Old Avestan ( c.  late 2nd millennium BCE ) and Younger Avestan ( c. 900 BCE). The closest ancient relatives of Vedic Sanskrit in

5390-408: The Megami Tensei franchise, with its more ambitious sequel following in 1990. During the development of Shin Megami Tensei , which was driven by the concept of a Super Famicom game with the company's brand on it, the team slowly decided that they wanted to break the then-current gaming status quo using its aesthetic and content. Despite this attitude, the staff considered Shin Megami Tensei to be

5544-632: The Nintendo Switch in 2021. An enhanced version of the game titled Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance was released in June 2024 for Microsoft Windows , Nintendo Switch , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5 , Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S . In addition to the main series, there are Shin Megami Tensei spin-off games. The first is Shin Megami Tensei If... , released in the same year and on

5698-450: The Persona sub-series sold 9.3   million copies, bringing total franchise numbers to 21.7   million units (including DL of free-to-play titles ) by 2018. Excluding the Persona series, the Megami Tensei series had supplied 19.2 million copies by 2023, including free-to-play titles. As of 5 March 2024 , the Persona series has sold 22.6 million units worldwide. Based on

5852-744: The Rigveda had already evolved in the Vedic period, as evidenced in the later Vedic literature. Gombrich posits that the language in the early Upanishads of Hinduism and the late Vedic literature approaches Classical Sanskrit, while the archaic Vedic Sanskrit had by the Buddha 's time become unintelligible to all except ancient Indian sages. The formalization of the Saṃskṛta language is credited to Pāṇini , along with Patañjali's Mahābhāṣya and Katyayana's commentary that preceded Patañjali's work. Panini composed Aṣṭādhyāyī ('Eight-Chapter Grammar'), which became

6006-532: The Rigveda , a collection of 1,028 hymns composed between 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE by Indo-Aryan tribes migrating east from the mountains of what is today northern Afghanistan across northern Pakistan and into northwestern India. Vedic Sanskrit interacted with the preexisting ancient languages of the subcontinent, absorbing names of newly encountered plants and animals; in addition, the ancient Dravidian languages influenced Sanskrit's phonology and syntax. Sanskrit can also more narrowly refer to Classical Sanskrit ,

6160-526: The Rāmāyaṇa , however, were composed in a range of oral storytelling registers called Epic Sanskrit which was used in northern India between 400 BCE and 300 CE, and roughly contemporary with classical Sanskrit. In the following centuries, Sanskrit became tradition-bound, stopped being learned as a first language, and ultimately stopped developing as a living language. The hymns of the Rigveda are notably similar to

6314-527: The Shin Megami Tensei games. Other designers have also worked on the series. For Nine , the developers wanted to have a new style to suit the game's original vision, so the characters were designed by animator Yasuomi Umetsu . the new main designer for the series is Masayuki Doi, who had made a name for himself with the Trauma Center series; and designed the main characters for Shin Megami Tensei IV . Inspired in his work by Kaneko's designs, he created

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6468-686: The Shin Megami Tensei moniker in the West, it was dropped for the Persona 4 Arena duology and Persona 4 Golden as it would have made the titles too long to be practical. The Devil Summoner subseries began in 1995 with the release of Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner . It was followed by Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers in 1997, which itself is followed by Soul Hackers 2 , released in 2022. Two action role-playing prequels set in 1920s Tokyo were also developed, which revolve around demon summoner Raidou Kuzunoha: Raidou Kuzunoha vs.

6622-874: The Super Famicom : Shin Megami Tensei in 1992, and Shin Megami Tensei II in 1994. After a nine-year gap, Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne was released in 2003 for the PlayStation 2 . Its Maniax Edition director's cut was released in Japan and North America in 2004, and in Europe in 2005. The numeral was dropped for its North American release, and its title changed to Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call in Europe. The next entry, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey ,

6776-505: The ocean of milk . According to the Matangalila, Airavata was born when Brahma sang sacred hymns over the halves of the egg shell from which Garuda hatched, followed by seven more male and eight female elephants. Prithu made Airavata king of all elephants. One of his names means "the one who knits or binds the clouds" since myth has it that these elephants are capable of producing clouds. The connection of elephants with water and rain

6930-406: The sandhi rules, both internal and external. Quite many words found in the early Vedic Sanskrit language are never found in late Vedic Sanskrit or Classical Sanskrit literature, while some words have different and new meanings in Classical Sanskrit when contextually compared to the early Vedic Sanskrit literature. Arthur Macdonell was among the early colonial era scholars who summarized some of

7084-500: The verbal adjective sáṃskṛta- is a compound word consisting of sáṃ ('together, good, well, perfected') and kṛta - ('made, formed, work'). It connotes a work that has been "well prepared, pure and perfect, polished, sacred". According to Biderman, the perfection contextually being referred to in the etymological origins of the word is its tonal—rather than semantic—qualities. Sound and oral transmission were highly valued qualities in ancient India, and its sages refined

7238-414: The 13th century, a premier center of Sanskrit literary creativity, Sanskrit literature there disappeared, perhaps in the "fires that periodically engulfed the capital of Kashmir" or the "Mongol invasion of 1320" states Pollock. The Sanskrit literature which was once widely disseminated out of the northwest regions of the subcontinent, stopped after the 12th century. As Hindu kingdoms fell in the eastern and

7392-487: The 3DS. Other subseries include Last Bible , a series aimed at a younger audience and using a pure fantasy setting; Devil Children , which was inspired by the popular Pokémon series; and Majin Tensei , a series of strategy games. Two notable stand-alone spin-offs are action spin-off Jack Bros. and Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE , a crossover with Intelligent Systems ' Fire Emblem series. Several titles in

7546-521: The 7th century where he established a major center of learning and language translation under the patronage of Emperor Taizong. By the early 1st millennium CE, Sanskrit had spread Buddhist and Hindu ideas to Southeast Asia, parts of the East Asia and the Central Asia. It was accepted as a language of high culture and the preferred language by some of the local ruling elites in these regions. According to

7700-425: The Classical Sanskrit language launched ancient Indian speculations about "the nature and function of language", what is the relationship between words and their meanings in the context of a community of speakers, whether this relationship is objective or subjective, discovered or is created, how individuals learn and relate to the world around them through language, and about the limits of language? They speculated on

7854-521: The Dravidian languages borrowed from Sanskrit vocabulary, but they have also affected Sanskrit on deeper levels of structure, "for instance in the domain of phonology where Indo-Aryan retroflexes have been attributed to Dravidian influence". Similarly, Ferenc Ruzca states that all the major shifts in Indo-Aryan phonetics over two millennia can be attributed to the constant influence of a Dravidian language with

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8008-513: The Dravidian words and forms, without modifying the word order; but the same thing is not possible in rendering a Persian or English sentence into a non-Indo-Aryan language. Shulman mentions that "Dravidian nonfinite verbal forms (called vinaiyeccam in Tamil) shaped the usage of the Sanskrit nonfinite verbs (originally derived from inflected forms of action nouns in Vedic). This particularly salient case of

8162-458: The Goddess": this has carried over into the current Shin Megami Tensei series, which has been officially translated as "True Goddess Metempsychosis". The word " Metempsychosis " refers to the cycle of reincarnation that ties into many Megami Tensei stories. The reborn goddess of the title has multiple meanings: it refers to a female character in each game that could be interpreted as the goddess, and

8316-517: The Goddess';) in Chinese, originating from the Japan version of Megami Tensei series used this term as subtitles in early spin-offs. The gameplay in the series has become notable for its high difficulty, along with several mechanics that have endured between games. A key element present since the first Megami Tensei is the ability to recruit demons to fight alongside the player in battle, alongside

8470-469: The Indo-Aryan language underwent rapid linguistic change and morphed into the Vedic Sanskrit language. The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit . The earliest attested Sanskrit text is the Rigveda , a Hindu scripture from the mid- to late-second millennium BCE. No written records from such an early period survive, if any ever existed, but scholars are generally confident that

8624-507: The Indo-European languages are the Nuristani languages found in the remote Hindu Kush region of northeastern Afghanistan and northwestern Himalayas, as well as the extinct Avestan and Old Persian – both are Iranian languages . Sanskrit belongs to the satem group of the Indo-European languages. Colonial era scholars familiar with Latin and Greek were struck by the resemblance of

8778-521: The Muslim rule in the form of Sultanates, and later the Mughal Empire . Sheldon Pollock characterises the decline of Sanskrit as a long-term "cultural, social, and political change". He dismisses the idea that Sanskrit declined due to "struggle with barbarous invaders", and emphasises factors such as the increasing attractiveness of vernacular language for literary expression. With the fall of Kashmir around

8932-489: The Muslim rulers. Hindu rulers such as Shivaji of the Maratha Empire , reversed the process, by re-adopting Sanskrit and re-asserting their socio-linguistic identity. After Islamic rule disintegrated in South Asia and the colonial rule era began, Sanskrit re-emerged but in the form of a "ghostly existence" in regions such as Bengal. This decline was the result of "political institutions and civic ethos" that did not support

9086-642: The Past Decade" list was topped by the two Digital Devil Saga games, followed by Persona 3 in second place, while Persona 4 ranked fourth place. Kalata, writing for Gamasutra , referred to Nocturne as one of the 20 essential RPGs for players of the genre. GameTrailers cited the Press Turn system as one of the best JRPG battle systems in existence, with particular reference to the version used in Shin Megami Tensei IV . Alongside its critical acclaim,

9240-488: The Saṃskṛta language, both in its vocabulary and grammar, to the classical languages of Europe. In The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World , Mallory and Adams illustrate the resemblance with the following examples of cognate forms (with the addition of Old English for further comparison): The correspondences suggest some common root, and historical links between some of

9394-470: The Soulless Army was released in 2006, and Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon was released in 2008. Aside from Persona and Devil Summoner , there are other spin-off series covering multiple genres. After the release of Shin Megami Tensei II , Atlus began focusing work on building spin-offs and subseries that would form part of the Megami Tensei franchise. Shortly after Nocturne ' s release,

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9548-517: The Soulless Army . Called Raidō Kuzunoha vs. The Super-Powered Army in Japan, the title was altered as it sounded "goofy" in English. By the time Strange Journey was in development, the franchise had a strong presence overseas, so the team created Strange Journey with localization in mind: the two aspects actively linked with this were the game's setting in Antarctica as opposed to modern-day Japan, and

9702-616: The South India, such as the great Vijayanagara Empire , so did Sanskrit. There were exceptions and short periods of imperial support for Sanskrit, mostly concentrated during the reign of the tolerant Mughal emperor Akbar . Muslim rulers patronized the Middle Eastern language and scripts found in Persia and Arabia, and the Indians linguistically adapted to this Persianization to gain employment with

9856-447: The Vedic Sanskrit in these books of the Ṛg-veda "hardly presents any dialectical diversity", states Louis Renou – an Indologist known for his scholarship of the Sanskrit literature and the Ṛg-veda in particular. According to Renou, this implies that the Vedic Sanskrit language had a "set linguistic pattern" by the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Beyond the Ṛg-veda, the ancient literature in Vedic Sanskrit that has survived into

10010-451: The Vedic Sanskrit's bahulam framework, to respect liberty and creativity so that individual writers separated by geography or time would have the choice to express facts and their views in their own way, where tradition followed competitive forms of the Sanskrit language. The phonetic differences between Vedic Sanskrit and Classical Sanskrit, as discerned from the current state of the surviving literature, are negligible when compared to

10164-594: The ability to fuse two different demons together to create a more powerful demon. Equivalents to these systems appear in the later Persona titles. The game's most recognizable battle system is the Press Turn system, first introduced in Nocturne . The Press Turn System is a turn-based battle mechanic governing both the player party and enemies, where either party are rewarded an extra turn for striking an enemy's weakness, but can also lose turns if attacks miss or are blocked. A Moon Phase System or equivalent, in which phases of

10318-453: The alignments were first defined as "Law" (the forces of God) and "Chaos" (the army of Lucifer). In future games, an additional "Neutral" route was included where the player could reject both sides. Selected games have been thematically or otherwise linked to a particular alignment. Shin Megami Tensei II , due to events prior to the story, focuses on the "Law" alignment. For Nocturne , all the characters were roughly aligned with "Chaos", which

10472-455: The alphabet, the structure of words, and its exacting grammar into a "collection of sounds, a kind of sublime musical mold" as an integral language they called Saṃskṛta . From the late Vedic period onwards, state Annette Wilke and Oliver Moebus, resonating sound and its musical foundations attracted an "exceptionally large amount of linguistic, philosophical and religious literature" in India. Sound

10626-440: The capacity to understand the old Prakrit languages such as Ardhamagadhi . A section of European scholars state that Sanskrit was never a spoken language. However, evidences shows that Sanskrit was a spoken language, essential for oral tradition that preserved the vast number of Sanskrit manuscripts from ancient India. The textual evidence in the works of Yaksa, Panini, and Patanajali affirms that Classical Sanskrit in their era

10780-517: The close relationship between the Indo-Iranian tongues and the Baltic and Slavic languages , vocabulary exchange with the non-Indo-European Uralic languages , and the nature of the attested Indo-European words for flora and fauna. The pre-history of Indo-Aryan languages which preceded Vedic Sanskrit is unclear and various hypotheses place it over a fairly wide limit. According to Thomas Burrow, based on

10934-609: The context of a speech or language, is found in verses 5.28.17–19 of the Ramayana . Outside the learned sphere of written Classical Sanskrit, vernacular colloquial dialects ( Prakrits ) continued to evolve. Sanskrit co-existed with numerous other Prakrit languages of ancient India. The Prakrit languages of India also have ancient roots and some Sanskrit scholars have called these Apabhramsa , literally 'spoiled'. The Vedic literature includes words whose phonetic equivalent are not found in other Indo-European languages but which are found in

11088-423: The core Shin Megami Tensei series is to focus on a single playable character as opposed to a group. Alongside other recurring characters is Lucifer, the fallen angel who stands against God and is portrayed in multiple forms to represent his omnipotence. Since Megami Tensei II , the series has used a morality-based decision system, where the player's actions affect the outcome of the story. In Megami Tensei II ,

11242-639: The crystallization of Classical Sanskrit. As in this period the Indo-Aryan tribes had not yet made contact with the inhabitants of the South of the subcontinent, this suggests a significant presence of Dravidian speakers in North India (the central Gangetic plain and the classical Madhyadeśa) who were instrumental in this substratal influence on Sanskrit. Extant manuscripts in Sanskrit number over 30 million, one hundred times those in Greek and Latin combined, constituting

11396-509: The defense and protection of its respective quarter. Chief among them is Airavata of Indra . There is a reference to Airavata in the Bhagavad Gita : Of horses, know Me to be the nectar-born Uchchaihshravas ; of lordly elephants, Airavata and of men, the monarch. Airavata is also known for being the cause of the churning of the ocean of milk. Once sage Durvasa presented a garland to Indra, who passed it on to Airavata. The elephant then threw

11550-467: The detailed and sophisticated treatise then transmitted it through his students. Modern scholarship generally accepts that he knew of a form of writing, based on references to words such as Lipi ('script') and lipikara ('scribe') in section 3.2 of the Aṣṭādhyāyī . The Classical Sanskrit language formalized by Pāṇini, states Renou, is "not an impoverished language", rather it is "a controlled and

11704-467: The differences between the Vedic and Classical Sanskrit. Louis Renou published in 1956, in French, a more extensive discussion of the similarities, the differences and the evolution of the Vedic Sanskrit within the Vedic period and then to the Classical Sanskrit along with his views on the history. This work has been translated by Jagbans Balbir. The earliest known use of the word Saṃskṛta (Sanskrit), in

11858-456: The distant major ancient languages of the world. The Indo-Aryan migrations theory explains the common features shared by Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages by proposing that the original speakers of what became Sanskrit arrived in South Asia from a region of common origin, somewhere north-west of the Indus region , during the early 2nd millennium BCE. Evidence for such a theory includes

12012-483: The early medieval era, it became a language of religion and high culture , and of the political elites in some of these regions. As a result, Sanskrit had a lasting impact on the languages of South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, especially in their formal and learned vocabularies. Sanskrit generally connotes several Old Indo-Aryan language varieties. The most archaic of these is the Vedic Sanskrit found in

12166-432: The extraordinary invading the ordinary world, though the two main Megami Tensei series focus on different things: Shin Megami Tensei focuses more on the main protagonist gaining the power needed to survive in a world ruled over by tyrannical deities, while Persona focuses on interpersonal relationships and the psychology of a group of people. The protagonist is generally male within the Shin Megami Tensei titles: while

12320-488: The fact that it was not given a numeral. Starting with Shin Megami Tensei IV , the company decided to actively promote the franchise overseas to North America, Europe and mainland Asia. After 2016, due to Atlus USA's merger with Sega of America, Sega took over North American publishing duties, although the Atlus brand remained intact. In general, Atlus publishes Megami Tensei games in Japan and North America, but as they lack

12474-401: The first book's subtitle. Most Megami Tensei titles are stand-alone entries with their own stories and characters. Recurring elements include plot themes, a story shaped by the player's choices, and the ability to fight using and often recruit creatures (demons, Personas) to aid the player in battle. Elements of philosophy, religion, occultism, and science fiction have all been incorporated into

12628-408: The first five main Megami Tensei titles was composed by Tsukasa Masuko. For Nocturne , Shoji Meguro , who had done work on earlier spin-off titles, was brought in. He later became well known for his work on the Persona titles. The Shin Megami Tensei and Persona art styles have been defined by two different artists: Kazuma Kaneko and Shigenori Soejima . Kaneko had a long history with

12782-543: The first language of the respective speakers. The Sanskrit language brought Indo-Aryan speaking people together, particularly its elite scholars. Some of these scholars of Indian history regionally produced vernacularized Sanskrit to reach wider audiences, as evidenced by texts discovered in Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. Once the audience became familiar with the easier to understand vernacularized version of Sanskrit, those interested could graduate from colloquial Sanskrit to

12936-421: The first successful use of cyberpunk aesthetics in video games, saying that the series' mix of science fiction elements and the occult "create a truly unique fictional cyberpunk world". Nintendo Power has noted that Atlus always mixes "familiar gameplay" with surprising settings when creating games for the series, citing Persona , with its "modern-day horror stories" and "teams of Japanese high-school kids", as

13090-409: The first three Persona games. Kaneko's style has been described as "cold [and] stoic", evolving into that state over time to keep the artwork as close as possible to the in-game render. He states that he mainly does line drawings for the artwork. He starts his artwork with pencil, and then scans them onto a computer so other artists can work on them digitally. Soejima's first work for the series

13244-412: The foundation of Vyākaraṇa, a Vedānga . The Aṣṭādhyāyī was not the first description of Sanskrit grammar, but it is the earliest that has survived in full, and the culmination of a long grammatical tradition that Fortson says, is "one of the intellectual wonders of the ancient world". Pāṇini cites ten scholars on the phonological and grammatical aspects of the Sanskrit language before him, as well as

13398-513: The franchise have received anime and manga adaptations: Persona 3 received both a four-part theatrical adaptation ( #1 Spring of Birth , #2 Midsummer Knight's Dream , #3 Falling Down , #4 Winter of Rebirth ), and a spin-off series titled Persona: Trinity Soul . Persona 4 received two adaptations: Persona 4: The Animation , based on the original game, and Persona 4: The Golden Animation , based on its expanded PlayStation Vita port. A live-action television series based on

13552-429: The franchise, Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei , was released on September 11, 1987. The following entries have nearly always been unrelated to each other except in carrying over thematic and gameplay elements. The Megami Tensei games, and the later Shin Megami Tensei titles form the core of the series, while other subseries such as Persona , Devil Children , and Devil Summoner are spin-offs marketed as part of

13706-449: The franchise. There are also stand-alone spin-off titles. Two entries were released for the Famicom : Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei in 1987, and Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II in 1990. The two titles are unrelated to each other in terms of story, and each introduced the basic gameplay and story mechanics that would come to define the series. Two entries were released for

13860-424: The games chosen for localization were all part of the larger Megami Tensei franchise, and using the core Shin Megami Tensei moniker kept all the titles under a single banner. Before this decision was made, the series was given the localized title Revelations , used for the first Persona and the first Last Bible . Later, changes to titles were made to make them less unwieldy, such as with Raidou Kuzunoha vs.

14014-419: The games up to 2003 were handled by Okada, but when he departed to form his own company Gaia , Kazuma Kaneko became the series' creative director. There are two main writers in the franchise: Shogo Isogai and Ryutaro Ito. Ito first worked on Megami Tensei II , joining the team after development to write the script, along with working with the script and being part of the debug team. Isogai's first work for

14168-557: The garland on to the ground, which angered Durvasa and resulted in the demigods to be "subject to old age and death." Reversing the curse required the devas to retrieve the nectar of immortality by churning the ocean of milk. At Darasuram near Tanjore is a temple where it is believed that Airavata worshipped the Lingam ; the Lingam is named after him as Airavateshwara. This temple, which abounds in rare sculpture and architectural workmanship,

14322-537: The gods Varuna, Mitra, Indra, and Nasatya found in the earliest layers of the Vedic literature. O Bṛhaspati, when in giving names they first set forth the beginning of Language, Their most excellent and spotless secret was laid bare through love, When the wise ones formed Language with their mind, purifying it like grain with a winnowing fan, Then friends knew friendships – an auspicious mark placed on their language. — Rigveda 10.71.1–4 Translated by Roger Woodard The Vedic Sanskrit found in

14476-431: The historic Sanskrit literary culture and the failure of new Sanskrit literature to assimilate into the changing cultural and political environment. Sheldon Pollock states that in some crucial way, "Sanskrit is dead ". After the 12th century, the Sanskrit literary works were reduced to "reinscription and restatements" of ideas already explored, and any creativity was restricted to hymns and verses. This contrasted with

14630-478: The intense change that must have occurred in the pre-Vedic period between the Proto-Indo-Aryan language and Vedic Sanskrit. The noticeable differences between the Vedic and the Classical Sanskrit include the much-expanded grammar and grammatical categories as well as the differences in the accent, the semantics and the syntax. There are also some differences between how some of the nouns and verbs end, as well as

14784-464: The king of Tavatimsa Heaven, riding on Erawan. The elephant became the symbol of Bangkok by association with Indra during its foundation as the capital of the new Rattanakosin Kingdom . It is also sometimes associated with the old Lao Kingdom of Lan Xang and the defunct Kingdom of Laos , where it was more commonly known as the "three-headed elephant" and had been used on the royal flag. Airavata

14938-586: The land of Japanese animation, but it became even more disturbing in Megami Tensei II . A Chinese game regulation document in 2021 cited Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse as an example of unsuitable depictions of religious figures. In a review of the Shin Megami Tensei series in Black Gate , Josh Bycer said "the Shin Megami Tensei series is very similar to Pokémon , in the use of an ever changing party roster. However Shin Megami Tensei did come first and

15092-432: The largest cultural heritage that any civilization has produced prior to the invention of the printing press. — Foreword of Sanskrit Computational Linguistics (2009), Gérard Huet, Amba Kulkarni and Peter Scharf Sanskrit has been the predominant language of Hindu texts encompassing a rich tradition of philosophical and religious texts, as well as poetry, music, drama , scientific , technical and others. It

15246-423: The lead designer for Persona 3 by Kaneko, as Kaneko wanted the younger staff members to gain experience. Persona 3 proved challenging for Soejima as he needed to refine his drawing style and take the expectations of series fans into account. He would go on to design for Persona 3/FES and Portable , Persona 4 , and Persona 5 . Soejima's drawing style is recognized as being lighter-toned than Kaneko's work on

15400-415: The likes of Final Fantasy , Suikoden and Breath of Fire . According to Okada, the naming of creatures and enemies was adjusted from the main series and original Japanese release of Persona to make it more acceptable for an overseas audience. Though it managed to establish the franchise overseas, the localization was a taxing task due to a small staff and the need to change multiple aspects to suit

15554-412: The linguistic expression and sets the standard for the Sanskrit language. Pāṇini made use of a technical metalanguage consisting of a syntax, morphology and lexicon. This metalanguage is organised according to a series of meta-rules, some of which are explicitly stated while others can be deduced. Despite differences in the analysis from that of modern linguistics, Pāṇini's work has been found valuable and

15708-503: The literary works. The Indian tradition, states Winternitz , has favored the learning and the usage of multiple languages from the ancient times. Sanskrit was a spoken language in the educated and the elite classes, but it was also a language that must have been understood in a wider circle of society because the widely popular folk epics and stories such as the Ramayana , the Mahabharata ,

15862-645: The main Persona games are spin-offs, so far focused on Persona 3 , 4 and 5 : the canon spin-offs Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth and Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth , two fighting games Persona 4 Arena and its sequel Arena Ultimax as well as the crossover fighting game BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle , and rhythm games Persona 4: Dancing All Night , Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight , and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight . While Persona 3 and 4 used

16016-459: The main characters' clothing to be a blend of Japanese and western fashions while incorporating design elements from the Star Wars series. After the success of IV, he went on to become the main demon designer for Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse and Shin Megami Tensei V , while still retaining his job as lead character designer. For the Devil Survivor games, Atlus were aiming to appeal to

16170-501: The modern age include the Samaveda , Yajurveda , Atharvaveda , along with the embedded and layered Vedic texts such as the Brahmanas , Aranyakas , and the early Upanishads . These Vedic documents reflect the dialects of Sanskrit found in the various parts of the northwestern, northern, and eastern Indian subcontinent. According to Michael Witzel, Vedic Sanskrit was a spoken language of

16324-462: The moon or changes in the weather affected the behavior of enemies, is also featured in multiple games. The layouts of the first two Megami Tensei games were noticeably different from later games: Megami Tensei used a 3D first-person perspective, while Megami Tensei II used a combination of first-person 3D displays for battle and top-down 2D displays for navigation. The change was suggested by staff members who did not want players getting lost in

16478-429: The more advanced Classical Sanskrit. Rituals and the rites-of-passage ceremonies have been and continue to be the other occasions where a wide spectrum of people hear Sanskrit, and occasionally join in to speak some Sanskrit words such as namah . Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini , around the fourth century BCE. Its position in the cultures of Greater India

16632-401: The most advanced analysis of linguistics until the twentieth century. Pāṇini's comprehensive and scientific theory of grammar is conventionally taken to mark the start of Classical Sanskrit. His systematic treatise inspired and made Sanskrit the preeminent Indian language of learning and literature for two millennia. It is unclear whether Pāṇini himself wrote his treatise or he orally created

16786-593: The most archaic poems of the Iranian and Greek language families, the Gathas of old Avestan and Iliad of Homer . As the Rigveda was orally transmitted by methods of memorisation of exceptional complexity, rigour and fidelity, as a single text without variant readings, its preserved archaic syntax and morphology are of vital importance in the reconstruction of the common ancestor language Proto-Indo-European . Sanskrit does not have an attested native script: from around

16940-583: The numbers are thought to signify a wish to be aligned with the prestige of the language. Sanskrit has been taught in traditional gurukulas since ancient times; it is widely taught today at the secondary school level. The oldest Sanskrit college is the Benares Sanskrit College founded in 1791 during East India Company rule . Sanskrit continues to be widely used as a ceremonial and ritual language in Hindu and Buddhist hymns and chants . In Sanskrit,

17094-403: The oral transmission of the texts is reliable: they are ceremonial literature, where the exact phonetic expression and its preservation were a part of the historic tradition. However some scholars have suggested that the original Ṛg-veda differed in some fundamental ways in phonology compared to the sole surviving version available to us. In particular that retroflex consonants did not exist as

17248-471: The original Devil Summoner was broadcast between 1997 and 1998. Devil Survivor 2 also received an anime adaptation of the same name , while the Devil Children series received two anime adaptations. Multiple Shin Megami Tensei and Persona titles have received manga and CD drama adaptations. Action figures and merchandise related to Persona have also been produced. Despite most games in

17402-431: The other." Reinöhl further states that there is a symmetric relationship between Dravidian languages like Kannada or Tamil, with Indo-Aryan languages like Bengali or Hindi, whereas the same relationship is not found for non-Indo-Aryan languages, for example, Persian or English: A sentence in a Dravidian language like Tamil or Kannada becomes ordinarily good Bengali or Hindi by substituting Bengali or Hindi equivalents for

17556-514: The perfect example. The editor also added that Strange Journey followed a similar system, calling it a "science-fiction makeover" of the series. In an article about the interaction of Japanese and Western gaming culture, 1UP.com mentioned the Shin Megami Tensei subseries alongside Nippon Ichi Software 's Disgaea series. Kurt Kalata wrote: "[They] may not be big sellers, but they've garnered underground success and attracted thousands of obsessed fans." GameSpot writer Andrew Vestal referred to

17710-414: The possible influence of Dravidian on Sanskrit is only one of many items of syntactic assimilation, not least among them the large repertoire of morphological modality and aspect that, once one knows to look for it, can be found everywhere in classical and postclassical Sanskrit". The main influence of Dravidian on Sanskrit is found to have been concentrated in the timespan between the late Vedic period and

17864-439: The previous 1,500 years when "great experiments in moral and aesthetic imagination" marked the Indian scholarship using Classical Sanskrit, states Pollock. Scholars maintain that the Sanskrit language did not die, but rather only declined. Jurgen Hanneder disagrees with Pollock, finding his arguments elegant but "often arbitrary". According to Hanneder, a decline or regional absence of creative and innovative literature constitutes

18018-480: The problems of interpretation and misunderstanding. The purifying structure of the Sanskrit language removes these imperfections. The early Sanskrit grammarian Daṇḍin states, for example, that much in the Prakrit languages is etymologically rooted in Sanskrit, but involves "loss of sounds" and corruptions that result from a "disregard of the grammar". Daṇḍin acknowledged that there are words and confusing structures in Prakrit that thrive independent of Sanskrit. This view

18172-596: The regional Prakrit languages, which makes it likely that the interaction, the sharing of words and ideas began early in the Indian history. As the Indian thought diversified and challenged earlier beliefs of Hinduism, particularly in the form of Buddhism and Jainism , the Prakrit languages such as Pali in Theravada Buddhism and Ardhamagadhi in Jainism competed with Sanskrit in the ancient times. However, states Paul Dundas , these ancient Prakrit languages had "roughly

18326-490: The relationship between various Indo-European languages, the origin of all these languages may possibly be in what is now Central or Eastern Europe, while the Indo-Iranian group possibly arose in Central Russia. The Iranian and Indo-Aryan branches separated quite early. It is the Indo-Aryan branch that moved into eastern Iran and then south into South Asia in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Once in ancient India,

18480-670: The required online capacities using Xbox Live . A true MMORPG, Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine , was released for Microsoft Windows in 2007 in Japan, 2008 in North America, and 2009 in Europe. Western service was terminated in 2014 when Marvelous USA , the game's then-handlers, shut down their PC Online game department. Its Japanese service ended in May 2016. A smartphone game, Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2 ,

18634-558: The role of language, the ontological status of painting word-images through sound, and the need for rules so that it can serve as a means for a community of speakers, separated by geography or time, to share and understand profound ideas from each other. These speculations became particularly important to the Mīmāṃsā and the Nyaya schools of Hindu philosophy, and later to Vedanta and Mahayana Buddhism, states Frits Staal —a scholar of Linguistics with

18788-491: The same relationship to Sanskrit as medieval Italian does to Latin". The Indian tradition states that the Buddha and the Mahavira preferred the Prakrit language so that everyone could understand it. However, scholars such as Dundas have questioned this hypothesis. They state that there is no evidence for this and whatever evidence is available suggests that by the start of the common era, hardly anybody other than learned monks had

18942-523: The same system as Shin Megami Tensei II . The second, Shin Megami Tensei: Nine , was released for the Xbox in 2002. Originally designed as a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), it was later split into a dual single-player and multiplayer package, and the single-player version released first. The online version was delayed and eventually cancelled as the developers could not manage

19096-551: The semi-nomadic Aryans . The Vedic Sanskrit language or a closely related Indo-European variant was recognized beyond ancient India as evidenced by the " Mitanni Treaty" between the ancient Hittite and Mitanni people, carved into a rock, in a region that now includes parts of Syria and Turkey. Parts of this treaty, such as the names of the Mitanni princes and technical terms related to horse training, for reasons not understood, are in early forms of Vedic Sanskrit. The treaty also invokes

19250-537: The series as the third biggest RPG series in Japan after Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest . IGN 's Matt Coleman mentioned Nocturne in the article "A History of Console RPGs", referring to its content as "challenging stuff for a genre that used to be all about princess saving and evil cleansing". Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II and Shin Megami Tensei both appeared on Famitsu 's 2006 "Top 100 Favorite Games of All Time" audience poll at No. 58 and No. 59, respectively. RPGFan's "Top 20 RPGs of

19404-553: The series at different times. While not maintaining as high a profile as series such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest , it is highly popular in Japan and maintains a strong cult following in the West, finding critical and commercial success. The series has become well known for its artistic direction, challenging gameplay, and music, but raised controversy over its mature content, dark themes, and use of Christian religious imagery. Additional media include manga adaptations, anime films, and television series. In Japan, some games in

19558-515: The series do not use the " Megami Tensei " title, such as the Persona sub-series. Many of the early games in the series were not localized due to potentially controversial content including religious references, and later due to their age. English localizations have used the " Shin Megami Tensei " moniker since the release of Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne in 2003. The first installment in

19712-449: The series has garnered controversy both in Japan and overseas. Amongst the material cited are its demon negotiation mechanic, depictions of suicide and cannibalism, religious criticism, its use and mixture of Christian and occult imagery, political references, depictions of homosexuality, and its sometimes-strange demon designs. Specific examples have been cited by western journalists. The original release of Persona caused concern due to

19866-481: The series on its list of "Controversies Waiting to Happen", saying that the lack of public outcry was due to its niche status when compared to other series with similar content. Writing for 1UP.com in a later article, Kalata traced this use of controversial content back to the Digital Devil Story novels, which depicted violence and rape committed by demons, and said that "Such violence is not particularly rare in

20020-403: The series taking place in different continuities, they do share certain elements. One of its defining traits is it being set in a contemporary urban environment, specifically modern-day Tokyo. Post-apocalyptic elements are a recurring feature in settings and narratives. This choice was originally made to set the game apart from other fantasy-based gaming franchises of the time, as modern day Tokyo

20174-453: The series was the script for Shin Megami Tensei II . The next entry If... was also written by Ito, and designed as a departure from the grand scale of previous games, instead being set within a cloistered school environment. His final work for the series was the first Devil Summoner . Isogai also worked on Shin Megami Tensei II and If... , and later worked on multiple Devil Summoner games, Nocturne and Strange Journey . The music for

20328-744: The series, having done some work on the original Megami Tensei titles. His first prominent work for the series was on Shin Megami Tensei , who worked on both the sprite art and promotional artwork for the game's characters and demons. He was also responsible for suggesting many of the game's darker features, defining the series' eventual identity. Before designing each demon, Kaneko looks up his chosen subject to get their mythological background, and uses that in their design. Many of Kaneko's demon designs were influenced by both creatures and deities from world mythology, and monsters from popular culture like Godzilla . Alongside working on Shin Megami Tensei II , If... and Nocturne , he also did character designs for

20482-594: The social structures such as the role of the poet and the priests, the patronage economy, the phrasal equations, and some of the poetic metres. While there are similarities, state Jamison and Brereton, there are also differences between Vedic Sanskrit, the Old Avestan, and the Mycenaean Greek literature. For example, unlike the Sanskrit similes in the Ṛg-veda, the Old Avestan Gathas lack simile entirely, and it

20636-456: The sun". 'Abhramu' is the elephant wife of Airavata. Airavata is also the third son of Iravati . In the Mahabharata he is listed as a great serpent. The appearance or birth of Airavata varies according to different Hindu texts. In the Ramayana , Airavata was born to Iravati (descendant of the sage, Kashyapa ) whereas, the Vishnu Purana notes that Airavata was born from the churning of

20790-499: The title's religious implications. 1UP.com's 2007 game awards, which ran in the March 2008 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly , Persona 3 was given the "Most controversial game that created no controversy" award: the writers said " Rockstar 's Hot Coffee sex scandal and Bully ' s boy-on-boy kissing's got nothing on this PS2 role-player's suicide-initiated battles or subplot involving student-teacher dating." GamesRadar included

20944-641: The turn of the 1st-millennium CE, it has been written in various Brahmic scripts , and in the modern era most commonly in Devanagari . Sanskrit's status, function, and place in India's cultural heritage are recognized by its inclusion in the Constitution of India 's Eighth Schedule languages . However, despite attempts at revival, there are no first-language speakers of Sanskrit in India. In each of India's recent decennial censuses, several thousand citizens have reported Sanskrit to be their mother tongue, but

21098-461: The use of philosophical concepts, enabling a blending of concepts and aesthetics that might normally clash. The stories of the core Shin Megami Tensei titles frequently include fighting against a tyrannical God. The method of story-telling in the series can involve traditional use of cutscenes and spoken dialogue ( Persona , Digital Devil Saga ), or a text-based minimalist approach that places emphasis on atmosphere ( Nocturne ). A tradition within

21252-408: The variants in the usage of Sanskrit in different regions of India. The ten Vedic scholars he quotes are Āpiśali, Kaśyapa , Gārgya, Gālava, Cakravarmaṇa, Bhāradvāja , Śākaṭāyana, Śākalya, Senaka and Sphoṭāyana. In the Aṣṭādhyāyī , language is observed in a manner that has no parallel among Greek or Latin grammarians. Pāṇini's grammar, according to Renou and Filliozat, is a classic that defines

21406-564: The vernacular Prakrits. Many Sanskrit dramas indicate that the language coexisted with the vernacular Prakrits. The cities of Varanasi , Paithan , Pune and Kanchipuram were centers of classical Sanskrit learning and public debates until the arrival of the colonial era. According to Lamotte , Sanskrit became the dominant literary and inscriptional language because of its precision in communication. It was, states Lamotte, an ideal instrument for presenting ideas, and as knowledge in Sanskrit multiplied, so did its spread and influence. Sanskrit

21560-402: The west, the game was a major franchise in Japan, having sold over four million copies by 2003. Excluding the Persona series, the Megami Tensei series sold approximately 7.2 million copies by October 2017. By October 2018, the Megami Tensei main series has shifted approximately 12.4 million packaged and digital copies (including DL of free-to-play titles ) of games worldwide. In addition,

21714-497: The Ṛg-veda is distinctly more archaic than other Vedic texts, and in many respects, the Rigvedic language is notably more similar to those found in the archaic texts of Old Avestan Zoroastrian Gathas and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey . According to Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton – Indologists known for their translation of the Ṛg-veda – the Vedic Sanskrit literature "clearly inherited" from Indo-Iranian and Indo-European times

21868-408: Was a spoken language ( bhasha ) used by the cultured and educated. Some sutras expound upon the variant forms of spoken Sanskrit versus written Sanskrit. Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang mentioned in his memoir that official philosophical debates in India were held in Sanskrit, not in the vernacular language of that region. According to Sanskrit linguist professor Madhav Deshpande, Sanskrit

22022-427: Was a spoken language in a colloquial form by the mid-1st millennium BCE which coexisted with a more formal, grammatically correct form of literary Sanskrit. This, states Deshpande, is true for modern languages where colloquial incorrect approximations and dialects of a language are spoken and understood, along with more "refined, sophisticated and grammatically accurate" forms of the same language being found in

22176-472: Was adopted voluntarily as a vehicle of high culture, arts, and profound ideas. Pollock disagrees with Lamotte, but concurs that Sanskrit's influence grew into what he terms a "Sanskrit Cosmopolis" over a region that included all of South Asia and much of southeast Asia. The Sanskrit language cosmopolis thrived beyond India between 300 and 1300 CE. Today, it is believed that Kashmiri is the closest language to Sanskrit. Reinöhl mentions that not only have

22330-722: Was also the language of some of the oldest surviving, authoritative and much followed philosophical works of Jainism such as the Tattvartha Sutra by Umaswati . The Sanskrit language has been one of the major means for the transmission of knowledge and ideas in Asian history. Indian texts in Sanskrit were already in China by 402 CE, carried by the influential Buddhist pilgrim Faxian who translated them into Chinese by 418 CE. Xuanzang , another Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, learnt Sanskrit in India and carried 657 Sanskrit texts to China in

22484-412: Was as part of the digital coloring team for the first Devil Summoner . He later had minor roles in artwork and character design in the first Persona and Soul Hackers . He later did the secondary characters for the Persona 2 duology, and was also part of the team checking over the PlayStation ports of the first three Shin Megami Tensei games, as well as minor work on Nocturne . Soejima was chosen as

22638-540: Was built by Rajaraja Chola II (1146–73 CE). In Jain tradition, when a Tirthankara is born, Indra descends with his consort, Shachi , riding their mount, the great elephant Airavata, to celebrate the event. Erawan ( Thai : เอราวัณ , from Pāḷi Erāvana , or Sanskrit Airāvana ) is one of the Thai names of Airavata. It is depicted as a huge elephant with either three or sometimes thirty-three heads which are often shown with more than two tusks. Some statues show Indra ,

22792-415: Was done both to bring variety to the series and allow the development team more creative freedom. Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse is restricted to a "Neutral" alignment while still having multiple endings. The three-tiered alignment was used in Strange Journey , and continued into Shin Megami Tensei IV . The Megami Tensei series began life as a media expansion of the Digital Devil Story series,

22946-458: Was rarely seen in games as opposed to versions of it from the past. The Persona series takes place exclusively within this setting, spanning a single continuity and mostly focusing on the exploits of a group of young people. Shin Megami Tensei II is one of the notable early exceptions to the series' common setting, as it is set in a science fiction-styled future despite still including fantasy elements. The Last Bible series also shifted to

23100-560: Was released for the Nintendo DS in 2009 in Japan and 2010 in North America. Shin Megami Tensei IV for the Nintendo 3DS was released in 2013 in Japan and North America, and a year later in Europe as a digital-only release. Another game set in the same universe, Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse , was released for the 3DS in February 2016 in Japan. Shin Megami Tensei V was released on

23254-432: Was released in 2000 in Japan and North America. Persona 3 was released in 2006 in Japan, 2007 in North America, and 2008 in Europe. Its sequel, Persona 4 , was released in 2008 in Japan and North America, and in 2009 in Europe. A sixth entry in the series, Persona 5 , was released in Japan on September 15, 2016, and was released in North America and Europe on April 4, 2017, to critical acclaim. In addition to

23408-408: Was released in 2018. The Persona series is the largest and most popular spin-off from the Megami Tensei series. The first entry in the series, Megami Ibunroku Persona (originally released overseas as Revelations: Persona ), was released in 1996 in Japan and North America. The first Persona 2 title, Innocent Sin , was released in 1999 in Japan. The second game, Eternal Punishment ,

23562-404: Was the first release in the Shin Megami Tensei series to be released overseas. After the release of Nocturne , Atlus' overseas branches decided to add the Shin Megami Tensei moniker to future releases within the Megami Tensei franchise to help market the games. Despite many of the original games not bearing the moniker, it ultimately worked in Atlus' favor as, regardless of title differences,

23716-442: Was visualized as "pervading all creation", another representation of the world itself; the "mysterious magnum" of Hindu thought. The search for perfection in thought and the goal of liberation were among the dimensions of sacred sound, and the common thread that wove all ideas and inspirations together became the quest for what the ancient Indians believed to be a perfect language, the "phonocentric episteme" of Sanskrit. Sanskrit as

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