Ashura Name Origin

I don't know for sure. It does exist a god or godlike being called Asura (and I believe the s sounds like sh) in Buddhism/Hinduism. I know that because of Saint Seiya, the name of the Capricorn Gold Saint (or Knight, in America) is Shura after Asura.

But I don't know anything about this deity being green.

 

Yeah it's Asura, it's spelled あしゅら = Ashura in Japanese.

 

It's in the dictionary

 

I distinctly remember the first time I ever saw the name ashura was on Gamewinners.com.

https://web.archive.org/web/20001017194601/http://www.gamewinners.com:80/GEN/SonicTheHedgehog2.htm

This snapshot is from October 17th 2000. The "Ashura code" was submitted by a user named Cody Scholberg.

Hope that helps.

Edit: I looked at the html and his actual username was faqdude. looks like it's got a hotmail account... ([email protected]) Doing a quick google search shows he's made guides on GameFAQs for sonic games before https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/saturn/198698-sonic-r/faqs/7620 I took a peek and...

If you have any questions,
find typos, or anything you find wrong with this FAQ please email me at
[email protected] or [email protected].

Guess you could email him?

 

I remember reading a long time ago that Ashura was named for the protagonist of the manga RG Veda, although their hair seems to be black, not green.

 

I think it's inherently kind of hard to properly research and document something that was entirely fan created in the 90s, as far as the naming convention goes. It's like trying to track down who started the rumor that you can find Mew under a fuckin' truck in Pokemon.

 

I thought I read somehere once that it was someone saying they named him after a friends username or something? I dunno where I read that though.

 

I searched around Google Groups and the earliest reference to "Ashura" to refer to the Sonic 2 glitch, as far as I can see, is from July 1997. However the last poster also wonders where the name actually came from

In April 1996 there was a user frequenting several newsgroups signing off posts with "Ashura the Hedgehog". Maybe they inspired or named it?

 

Maybe some guy liked to create original characters and created a green/black hedgehog based on the glitch and named it Ashura because he thought it would sound cool. Who knows.

 

I'm kinda confused here.

In this topic we already have the answer as to who named him.

 

Yeah, chances are good he remembered hearing the name somewhere, thought it sounded cool, and spread it around. Especially if he told people "It's named Ashura" instead of "I've been calling it Ashura". Subtle distinction, but makes it sound more official.

 

They were also wondering on the origin a year later, too;

"i wish i knew why people started calling it ashura though, i think i heard that
his origin was just in a fanfic possibly written before the bug was found, but
ive never actually seen him in any of those either" - Nov 28, 1998
​

Oh, how history truly repeats.

 

22-24 years later, some mysteries have yet to be unraveled.
Truly outstanding, surprising and mystifying. Can't say more.
Keep going, you guys. You may finally be onto something...

 

Others in this thread have basically identified the trick with what you're looking for. It's entirely possible that the guy who chose the name "Ashura" did so because he thought there was a green Hindu god with black spots on his head by that name, even if he was mistaken about the existence of such a god.

Just yesterday I was telling someone about the old "shoot the Cyberdemon until it dies" magazine protip only to discover it was fake. Sometimes the truth turns out to be the lamest possible option.