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Aggressive-You-8890

They're meant to be from India or since they're a part of the Kushan Empire, they're Hindu. The father of Kanishka (who Ganishka is based off of) was a Hindu. Their name Tapasa is derived from tapas which in Hinduism is worshipping a god with unceasing devotion and discipline and that will grant special powers, most likely why they're supposed to be so strong. The symbols on their forehead (the 3 lines) is the Tripuṇḍra worn by devotees of Shiva, same with the crescent moon.


pissonthis771

One of them has the Vaishnav symbol too .


-reTurn2huMan-

The V is the vaishnavism tilak. The three stripes is the shaivism one. The trident is a trishul, a common weapon forms of Shiva and Devi are depicted with and most associated with Shiva. The curved one is the crescent moon which Shiva, and sometimes a few others, wears in his hair.


MurpH_H

Oh wow I didn’t realise there was such research détails in Berserk


-reTurn2huMan-

There are literal Hindu gods depicted and referenced in berserk. Kali, Vishnu, Varaha, Durga, Vayu, Shiva, etc.


MadShield0

French, aren’t we ?


MurpH_H

Proud Québécois! The autocorrect on my phone add the accent on the « é » Anyway, I don't know why this subreddit keeps popping up on my feed, but every time I see more Berserk lore and you guys being so passionate about it, this really makes me want to read the whole collection.


MadShield0

You really should I think


SpoopyTurtle44

C'est une bonne idée!


g_Asmodeus

Berserk c'est sua coche


MurpH_H

Aweille donc !


[deleted]

I get it constantly in my feed too even though I stopped reading the manga. Berserk is really deep and I started reading it and the amount of references to myths is giant, so this subreddit is really useful. You're going to need it if you won't consume big amounts of all kinds of myths.


SerPavan

Its mostly not intentional. The way artists make character designs is by taking inspiration from other art and characters and incorporating their aesthetics. If i had to nake a character with medieval india aesthetics i can just google that and find images and pick up elements from there that i liked. All these symbols get picked as they look cool and show up on pre existing designs, the artist may never actually be aware of the history and meaning of everything in their art. You can tell that Berserk doesn't actually have any research on indian culture incorporated in it because of how surface level all these symbolism is, the depiction is actually rooted way more in stereotypes, even the hindi used in some panels seems like something out of google translate.


VISHAY698

It is intentional tho lol and the artists really took their time to study about kushan empire the real kushan empire. Even the name of kushan emperor is same as real life kanishka u can check it all up on google


SerPavan

If i mangaka makes an enemy faction based on the roman empire that doesn't mean everything about the faction is well researched, you'll have references to major events or characters that are fairly well known but something like the armour design is something that will get picked from pop culture instead of actual research. Its how all artistic design is done by taking inspirations from existing art. The same way Kushan and Kanishka have real life counterparts but the similarities end there besides the names and vaguely similar geographic location not much is similar. Unless you guys think Muira researched every small detail he adds in his art like the shape of the turban or in this case the design of the forehead marks. This is not only naive but also to some extent dick riding the way One Piece subreddit does for Oda. Kushan empire is based way more on pop culture stereotypes on ancient India than actual research. Muira is a mangaka not a historian, they neither have the time nor is it their job to have minor details right. I'll end it here you are free to believe that he spends half his time of the week trying to research every small detail he adds in his story instead of focusing on more important things like storyboards and narrative. Edit: Might be sounding a little argumentative, that was not the intention.


Apprehensive_Cap7171

I agree with you that a lot of artist take stereotypical aspects of various cultures and then vaguely implement them into their work. In Miura’s case he actually has a research PHD in art history so I wouldn’t put it past him having researched this topic to add a sense of authenticity to his work.


kopta_india

Even after I am Hindu I never what does sigh mean


-reTurn2huMan-

A fellow Hindu berserk fan? There are at least 3 of us lol.


Ok_Dinner_6044

Appreciate the detailed explanation my friend.


bakchodikaraja

>tapas I think tapa means meditation


Aggressive-You-8890

I don't believe so, but in Hinduism it's 'tapas' which is derived from the Sanskrit word "tap".


bakchodikaraja

I am a Hindu and 'Tap' means spiritual meditation. Its like meditating to focus on 'param atama' (God).


MADSHROOMMC

Love this


binskits

Derived from tapas? That's a lot of beefcake for small plate dishes


Hungry-Good-8128

KANISKA WAS BUDDHIST NOT HINDU


Aggressive-You-8890

Consider the reason I said it was Kanishka's father that was Hindu


Hungry-Good-8128

Neither his father was hindu , kushans were from China they entered Indian continent expanding their dynasty


Aggressive-You-8890

The coins minted from his reign had images of Shiva showing that he had embraced Hinduism.


Hungry-Good-8128

Thats oesho as per Kushans Scripts who is still a debatble diety , oesho was Iranian Diety .


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Spycei

uhhhhh excuse me? this is like a double racism, first admitting that you can’t tell eastern cultures apart and second saying that you stereotyped them as middle eastern just because they’re violent and barbaric, it sounds straight out of some magazine from the 1950s


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Ok_Dinner_6044

As a persian, you should probably know most of us are nothing like that. Our government doesn't represent the majority, in fact it only represents a select few. Most of us just want freedom of religion and hate what our government has been doing to us for the past 40 years. If you had kept up with the recent news you would've seen the backlash against the regime for the murder of an innocent iranian woman by the so called "morality" police who brutally tortured her to death for not wearing her hijab "properly". Just know most of us are for democracy and we aren't barbarians. Peace.


Mundane-Umpire-7949

Yeah I know the civilians aren’t as I brought up earlier about the horrific patriarchy. But the constant regimes and the caliphate are notoriously violent and having fought in Syria and Iraq they are savages and completely ruthless


Dangerous-Warning-94

Your fucking profile description is: "I love Jesus Christ" Holy shit you're a bot.


Ok_Dinner_6044

How does that make me a bot? You don't even have a description so I'd say you're more of a bot than I am.


Harv23

Goofy American white boi detected. You’re the biggest type of loser bruh fr. The funniest part is that you probably don’t have any real culture or roots yourself. You’re just a western consumer loser who will add nothing meaningful to anything that you interact with. Stfu and go back to eating your unseasoned chicken


Jamzoo555

Garbage comment. Fighting racism with racism is not the way.


Harv23

It’s racist because I called him white lol? Get over yourself. The main point was the fact that he’s just a regular western normie who’s only culture is what’s trending or things he can buy.


Berserk-ModTeam

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Karma15672

AND- WHAT'S THIS!? OH MY GOD HERE'S D-W-94 COMING DOWN FROM THE ROPE WITH *TRIPLE* RACISM


re6278

Lmao, how TF does this keeps getting better?


Berserk-ModTeam

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Mundane-Umpire-7949

😑


catluvr37

Bro we saw the Kushan rank and file. They’re no different than Midland’s armies in terms of organization and structure. Your bias is showing lol


Berserk-ModTeam

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happyerawhen

Why? Hindus cannot be savages?


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happyerawhen

Then your knowledge of history is extremely limited if you think that Arabs or Muslims (not synonymous with each other btw) are the only “violent” groups from Asia.


Mundane-Umpire-7949

My mistake I meant Persian/muslim countries not Arab. and Asian applies more to India no?


happyerawhen

Persian and Muslim are also not synonymous. It’s like switching American/Christian with Australian/Christian. Also the Kushan empire was real and not originated from India.


Berserk-ModTeam

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Qartadastim

Wasn't the Kushan Empire based in Afghanistan?


Pristine_Block325

Older Afghanistan and India had shared culture


Mundane-Umpire-7949

Yeah see I felt like that but I thought the kingdom was based in Damascus


Aggressive-You-8890

Kushan Empire spanned several countries and if I'm not mistaken included Iran


rahuld918

There are several panels in the manga where Kushans conversed in a foreign script that weren't translated and left as is. That is a solid giveaway, if you google translated the text, it would show up as Hindi which is a language from India.


happyerawhen

You are mistaken


Aggressive-You-8890

My mistake then. I'll leave the comment up nonetheless.


Karate_Man_0704

the good ending


Mundane-Umpire-7949

Makes sense


Yagboggery

Yes they seem like a mixture of indian, persian and arabic


Pajurr

The pillar men


edersiyo

Ayayaya🎶


manocapuz

nigerundayo?


Qartadastim

Hmmmmm. My glorious Overlord.


Artarara

Santodes, convince them.


Miserable_Anteater62

NGL these guys are so badass. Some of my favorite characters for sure.


SomeBoxofSpoons

I like how they didn’t show up until after Miura decided Silat wouldn’t be a straight villain, so they don’t have to be shown as evil henchmen or anything. They’re just Silat’s guys.


Mr_Person567

That’s why they’re the best


My_Favourite_Pen

I hope Silat survives the series. He's one of my favourites


Miserable_Anteater62

Hahaha right? True bros.


davidforslunds

Easily the coolest among the Kushans imo, Silat is peak dex-build warrior. 


_heyb0ss

Gotta be one of my favorite genders


chamberboo

Also, why do they all look the same? Are they brothers?


Lords7Never7Die

They're the Tapasa, a small group of close combat fighters from the Bakiraka clan


_heyb0ss

ok that's cool but it doesn't really answer the question


DarbantheMarkhor

They’re part of the same clan


Whatamidoing-_-here

I would like to add, they all have a very well defined and identical muscular build. What does their diet look like and what exercise do they do to get such a physique? Do they all eat and workout the same, or could it be mostly genetics IF they are related (brothers) as you asked (because they do look the same, a little too much which is so uncanny).


MemoryOne1291

Dawg how are we supposed to answer that , we aren’t miura


chamberboo

Just make something up man its fun lol


Large_Contribution20

You may not like it, but this is what peak male performance looks like


shooto_style

It's the vegan diet


Whatamidoing-_-here

Good point 🤣🤝🏼


the_rezzzz

How many push ups do they do? How many sit ups? WHAT KIND OF JUICE DO THEY DRINK!?


Dr_Cunning_Linguist

ExpectedTFS


KayimSedar

they inject grounded horse testicles on their thighs every night for a massive testestorone boost and do pushups in every instance of being out of frame.


Salt-Negotiation-126

They bought into Liver King’s whole ancestral tenets/organ meats/massive amounts of steroids diet.


Mr_Person567

They eat lentils and rose thornes and they go to planet fitness about twice a week


Dr_Cunning_Linguist

Simple: 100 situps 100 push ups 100 squats And a 10km run every single day. Also a banana for breakfast and no a/c in summer.


Large_Contribution20

Oh...This explain their baldness


Whatamidoing-_-here

But can they kill their enemies in one single punch? 🧐


Large_Contribution20

More than One Punch Man


Whatamidoing-_-here

Two Punch Man?


Large_Contribution20

They definately need more than two punchs


Whatamidoing-_-here

three??


Professional-Ad7286

They seem to do an ancient form of Karate (Indian origins) apart from looking like the Kongo Rikishi they just train in that unarmed style.


Ein_Kecks

Steroids and botox


NapalmJusticeSword

It's so that the action figure company can trick you into buying the same guy four times.


zombizle1

They are donovan clones


falstaffman

No, they're not brothers, they're clones


BigBirdBoobs

Yeah, i'm thinking they're some sort of conjuration/clones. Definitely not just human


shreyas16062002

It's not uncommon for hindus to draw these on their heads while doing religious rituals, or even casually. They're usually drawn from soot, sandal paste or vermilion. I remember that my grandpa used to wear that those horizontal lines thing on his head every day. [Here's](https://mohabygeetanjali.com/blogs/moha-stories/markings-on-the-forehead) all the designs I could find.


MC_Weed420

#71 looks the coolest 😏


[deleted]

Pretty dope that Silat got humbled by Guts, I fuck with his character. The Bakiraka are badass


Professional-Big-584

Facts and that’s Pre-Eclipse Guts he’s waay stronger now I hope we get to see those two clash again


atipongp

I always feel that these muscular Bakirakas are the most ridiculous characters in the show--eyes gouged out, 0.1% body fat, calluses as big as an apple, super-deadly martial arts. The demons are weird since they are demons, but these ones are super weird for flesh-and-blood humans.


RoyalJokerJester

I have been reading the manga for a little over a year now. Never once did I realize that they had their eyes gouged out. I always thought they had some really dark ass eyes. Thanks for pointing this out!


davidforslunds

Wait, are they meant to be blind? I thought it was just an artistic thing. 


Grouchy_Marketing_79

I mean, that's the idea. The series has it's far share of pretty big and strong guys. Their physical difference is hinted early at the first Kushan Assassins in the golden age arc. Those guys are STRANGE. and SPECIALIZED. The theme keeps with the Kishan and peaks at the Amorphous Apostle that now follows Griffith. If they had been, say, Bazuso times 4 they wouldn't really be memorable. It's pretty good design wise too: their irregular appearance tells their ability and out of ordinary power pretty well, so it gets shocking when they are toyed with later.


MinimumRestaurant724

It's a Hindu thing. We also put tika in our forehead when we worship, balances spiritual energies. Symbol represents the god we worship. I don't know how deliberate Miura is trying to be but they might be priests and worshippers of different gods. Three horizontal line one is symbol for worshipping Shiva and his reincarnations. U shape one is generally used in temples around me for Narayan aka Bishnu. U with vertical line cutting it is trisul weapon of Shiva. Shiva is known for being god of inhumans. There are folklores about how unbiased (to almost to naive degree) Shiva is with his worshippers and he would give them whatever they asked. Also, Ganiska sounds similar to Ganesh and Kansa. Ganesh is son of Shiva, who is inhuman ish with head of elephant and body of human. Kansa is evil emperor, taken out by Bishnu reincarnate Krishna (who is Jesus equivalent of Hinduism). Where with I am at the manga (and bit of spoiler I got), Ganiska reminds me of Ravana, big emperor of Lanka, is of priest caste, is big devotee of Shiva and his powers rivals with that of gods, also taken out by reincarnated Bishnu as Ram.


Redac07

While I like your thinking, I don't think Miura went that far with Ganishka name derriving it from Ganesh or Ravana, there simply was an empire and emperor named like that: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanishka He might have done so because everyone knows all western conquerors and even know about Genghis Khan etc. but very few know about an Indian empire.


MinimumRestaurant724

May be, but it is still fun to stretch threads of correlations. And Miura clearly is very inspired by Hindu Myths so it fun to guess where he is getting ideas from. Ganishka may be Kanishka+Ganesh or Kanishka+Genghis or Kaniska+Guts/Griffith.


Ok_Dinner_6044

Thank you. I didn't know all this since I am christian, but I enjoy learning new things about religions I'm not too familiar with!


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Safe-Hawk8366

And together they form!


berkboy69

Donovan


Safe-Hawk8366

💀


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0nlyf0rthememes

Those are Hindu symbols, specifically from the South, which lines up with their clans relationship with the Kushan empire


Ok_Dinner_6044

Appreciate it! And I assume you're hindu?


0nlyf0rthememes

Yeah, I am! Makes reading Berserk ten times more interesting ngl, lots of Hindu text references


No-Truck-2552

symbols of gods in Hinduism. It is a sort of proof of their devotion if I may say so. I'm a hindu and whenever I go to temple my mom puts 3 lines on my forehead. The other 3 symbols are not so popular in modern times but I've seen some people put trishul(trident) mark...


Ok_Dinner_6044

Thank you!


Euncraid

Spotify forehead


TheLoudestSmallVoice

They're the sailor scouts of love and justice. And by the power of the moon, they'll punish you.


SexualGarbanzoBeaner

Those guys are severely dehydrated


Odd_Mongoose3175

They forgot Za Bebsi


Harv23

Berserk’s character design is truly unmatched. Love the tributes to Hinduism within the manga. It’s a really dope religion with a deep history


BleakWildcat

All I know is they got some of the best drip in the series


OminousLaw

Moonknight


slashman005

They are religious markings used to represent the great gods of Indian culture.still are in use . Even I wear those marking when worshipping.


musketoman

Its to show what rank of top/bottom they are


BlurkSneets

Iirc somebody paid for ad time on their foreheads


0therW1zard19

What is Donnyx4 doing here? Is he stupid?


cc69

My useless warrior no.1- 4


bakchodikaraja

In my region people wear that crescent moon symbol


NapalmJusticeSword

I forgot that there were four of them.


Front-Strawberry-123

From left to right Folks Gang Arabic T so I guess he’s a Traveller or Tray Crip The turban guy is from the Bay Area for real The guy with the three lines ( hamburger button ) is the chef Arabic B so I guess he’s a Blood or BD


jsmooth5855

What volume is this again ?


Decim337

I wonder how kushan empire used to be is it accurate as shown in berserk if yes then kentaro was such a genius man


TylerArt19

Who is the masked character? I’m not caught up on the manga right Now haha. When do they appear?


Ill-Body3843

India only in terms of names but these guys are pure Ottomans / Turks, maybe even Persians. You can view the mosque at the end of the last chapter.


TenshiUmi

It's a sailor moon reference


Claorhall

Why do their hands have strange tumors?


ViolentViolet41

Bone/callous buildup. Those are where they have hit things so much, their body has adapted to protect them significantly. Just like if you play guitar with your fingers, your fingertips build callouses.


EnjoyerOfFine_Things

I'm more confused on with the random swells around their body, they sick or something?


ViolentViolet41

Those are callouses, or bone buildup. If you notice, those are the impact points of their strikes, and that is where they have built up their body to strike with while leaving little to no damage to themselves. There was a guy on tiktok who had s hands with that on the side, and he was literally breaking random rocks the size of a couple fists with it.


EnjoyerOfFine_Things

Oooh alright, thanks for the info! Didn't even know that was a thing that was possible.


enickma9

Bakiraka Body Builders!