A sentence on Zelda Wiki posits that “Sahasrahla may be named after the seventh chakra of Hinduism, Sahasrara.” Sahasrahla, it goes without saying, is the wise old man who guides your quest in the early sections of A Link to the Past. His name, it goes without saying, is weird.
When we see sentences like these, it is wise to be skeptical. There’s no obvious reason for Sahasrahla to be named after a chakra, and the author of the sentence offers no support for the supposition. But it is not wise to conclude on this basis that the theory is incorrect. It is not wise to dismiss an idea out of hand just because at face value it seems goofy. Wise people are aware that the objective world, the world of facts, is extremely goofy.
In Japanese, Sahasrahla is サハスラーラ, Sahasuāra. The Sahasrara chakra (which might not technically be a chakra, depending on who you ask) is rendered in katakana as サハスラーラ, which is: the same word.
(I’m trying to present these “findings” as simple facts that you can easily confirm yourself; I don’t want you to have to base your appraisal on whether you can trust me personally. But here are my bona fides, so you know where my head is at: I don’t speak Japanese; I have only a dilettante’s understanding of how the language works. I minored in Sanskrit, so I have five semesters’ worth of expertise in that language, which is not very much.)
Let’s keep going. Sahasrahla has a sort of counterpart/palette swap in Aginah, a minor sage whose main function is to tell Link to go find the Book of Mudora. In Japanese, Aginah is アジナー, Ajinā. The sixth chakra is the Ājñā chakra, which is rendered in katakana as アージュニャー (“Ājunyā”) in the Wikipedia article linked above, and as アジナー (like the Link to the Past character) by some other people like in this blog post and this blog post.
This works out very well: It makes sense to name the keepers of wisdom after mystical chakras; it makes sense that the main sage is named after the topmost “crown” chakra and the subsidiary sage is named after the “third eye” chakra directly beneath that one. I, personally, am convinced.
I wondered if this insight could be extended to explain the name “Agahnim,” which is a much cooler name than “Sahasrahla” but equally inexplicable. In Japanese, Agahnim is アグニム, Agunimu. This looks like a Sanskrit term: Agni—fire, and the god of fire. Japanese renders Agni as アグニ, “Aguni,” which is awful close, but not exactly a slam dunk.
Why would Agahnim be named after Agni? Agahnim is a sort of evil vizier guy who turns out to be Ganon’s human disguise; he casts spells and kidnaps maidens. Agni is not an evil deity. He embodies the sacrificial fire, the link between humans and divinities. He is a purifier. He’s invoked in weddings. None of these qualities map to Agahnim in any obvious way. If Agahnim’s spells even kind of looked like fire I would take that as evidence of a connection, but his spells just look like energy orbs and lightning bolts.
But I was replaying Link to the Past recently, and I ran into Aginah, and he fulfilled his function by telling me about the Book of Mudora, and I was struck by an idea. So I checked some stuff out: In Japanese, the Book of Mudora is ムドラの書, Mudora no Sho. ムドラ is also the katakana rendering of the Sanskrit word “mudra,” a complicated term that usually refers to ritual hand gestures. In yoga, mudra are poses that seal your life force in various ways. You may have seen characters like Sailor Mars use mudra to focus energy or cast spells.
The Book of Mudora helps you cast spells, but it’s presented as a sort of dictionary that lets you read other texts that actually teach you spells. It doesn’t match up very well. But, just like Agahnim and Agni, the names are really close.
“Really close” doesn’t sound that convincing, I know. But here’s the thing: All these terms—names of deities, names of chakras, the idea of mudra—are all pretty basic concepts that you’d encounter as a non-expert getting into Hindu religion and spirituality. They are not deep cuts.
By way of contrast, look at the Cane of Somaria. In Japanese, it’s ソマリアの杖, Somaria no Tsue. ソマリア “Somaria” could possibly be the katakana for a Sanskrit term: In fact, “soma” (the drink of the gods) and “arya” (meaning “kind, favorable,” the root of the term “Aryan”) are a couple of intro-level words, not much more obscure than “Agni.” Compounded they would form the term “somārya,” which does in fact appear in my huge Sanskrit dictionary, under the many, many terms derived from “soma.” The definition given for “somārya” is: “Name of a Brāhman.” No further indication of who this Somārya person is. No reason to think that the writers of Link to the Past would ever have come across this name. (I’m pretty sure it’s just named after Somalia.)
While we’re at it we can look at the Cane of Byrna, which in Japanese is the バイラの杖, Baira no Tsue. バイラ could be the katakana form for a Sanskrit word like “baira” or “baila” or “vaira” or “vaila.” (For a minute I was hoping it could be the transliteration of “vajra,” Indra’s thunderbolt, but that did not bear out.) Well, “baila” and “vaila” are both real Sanskrit words. They both basically mean “of or relating to something that lives in a hole.” Neither is a common term as far as I know. “Vaira” means “hostile, inimical, revengeful” (“bhaira” appears to be roughly equivalent) and it’s common enough to have a bunch of derived terms listed, but that has nothing to do with the Cane of Byrna, which is primarily a defensive item. So I don’t think the Sanskrit theory can explain this item. (Maybe “Baira” is supposed to mean “barrier.” But I’m not supposed to be speculating.)
It’s clear to me, though, that someone on the Link to the Past staff had some sort of interest in Hindu religion or philosophy or mysticism, and drew from that culture when coming up with names for certain things. I would love to extend this trend beyond the names “Sahasrahla,” “Aginah,” “Agahnim,” and “Mudora,” but I can’t.
Let’s return to that sentence on Zelda Wiki, though: “Sahasrahla may be named after the seventh chakra of Hinduism, Sahasrara.” I hope I have demonstrated to you that this was not a stupid sentence.
UPDATE, JUNE 2024: I want to go back to the “vajra” idea. I think it’s within the realm of possibility for a Japanese person in 1991, with imperfect knowledge of Sanskrit and without access to Wikipedia or Google Translate, to see the term “vajra,” think it’s pronounced “vaira” (under the assumption that the “j” is pronounced /j/ as it is in many European languages), and transliterate it as バイラ. The effect of the Cane of Byrna has the same sort of similarity to Indra’s vajra as the Book of Mudora has to the concept of mudra. But, in the spirit of careful, speculation-free analysis of my original research, I don’t think you should find this convincing.