When studying the life of the Buddha Shakyamuni we must go back and study the cause and effect relationship as to what was going on at that time in the world. When the Buddha emerged on the scene.
 
Dr. Ambedkar, who observes that the students of ancient Indian History often come across four names, the Aryans, Dravidians, Dasas and Naagas. The Aryans were not a single homogeneous people, being divided into at least two sections. A greater mistake lies, he says, in differentiation of the Dasas from the Naagas. Dasas are the same as Naagas, Dasas being another name for Naagas. Dasa is the sanskritised from of the Indo Iranian word Dahaka, which was the name of the king of the Naagas.
 
The following points emerge from his writings:
The word 'Dravida' is the Sanskritised form of the word Tamil. The original word Tamil when imported into Sanskrit became Damila and later on Damila became Dravida. The word Dravida is the name of the language of the people and does not denote the race of the people. When you go back to ancient India during the time of the Buddha you are dealing with “Naga People.” The “Naga People” are the Black non Aryan people who first inhabited India.

Now let us move back to the “Messenger of the Buddha” Nichiren Daishonin who inscribed the Gohonzon as an “Object of worship.” It is clear that Nichiren Daishonin was not of the same mind as many of the Japanese who I have met from the SGI and Nichiren Shoshu. It is outright exciting that we African and African Americans can find joy in the fact that Nichiren Daishonin did not show the “Racism in formulating the Gohonzon that many Japanese show today.

Let us talk about the Gohonzon and the Nagas people. Let us read what Dr. Clyde Winters write about the Naga people . “ A reading of ancient Dravidian literature which dates back to 500 BC, gives us considerable information on the Naga. In Indian tradition the Naga won central India from the Villavar (bowmen) and Minavar (fishermen).
The Naga were great seamen who ruled much of India, Sri Lanka and Burma. To the Aryans they described as half man and snake. The Tamil knew them as warlike people who used the bow and noose.

The earliest mention of the Naga, appear in the Ramayana , they are also mentioned in the Mahabharata. In the Mahabharata we discover that the Naga had the capital city in the Dekkan, and other cities spread between the Jumna and Ganges as early as 1300 BC. The Dravidian classic, the Chilappathikaran made it clear that the first great kingdom of India was Naganadu.

The Naga probably came from Kush-Punt/Ethiopia. The Puntites were the greatest sailors of the ancient world. In the Egyptian inscriptions there is mention of the Puntite ports of Outculit, Hamesu and Tekaru, which corresponds to Adulis, Hamasen and Tigre.
In Sumerian text, it is claimed that the Puntites traded with the people of the Indus Valley or Dilmun. According to S.N. Kramer in The Sumerians, part of Punt was probably called Meluhha, and Dilmun was probably the ancient name of the Indus Valley. (Today some scholars maintain that Oman, where we find no ancient cities was Dilmun and the Indus Valley may have been Meluhha).

Ancient Ethiopian traditions support the rule of Puntites or Ethiopians of India. In the Kebra Nagast, we find mention of the Arwe kings who ruled India. The founder of the dynasty was Za Besi Angabo. This dynasty according to the Kebra Nagast began around 1370 BC. These rulers of India and Ethiopia were called Nagas. The Kebra Nagast claims that ” Queen Makeda “had servants and merchants; they traded for her at sea and on land in the Indies and Aswan”. It also says that her son Ebna Hakim or Menelik I, made a campaign in the Indian Sea; the king of India made gifts and donations and prostrated himself before him”. It is also said that Menalik ruled an empire that extended from the rivers of Egypt (Blue Nile) to the west and from the south Shoa to eastern India”, according to the Kebra Nagast.

The Kebra Nagast identification of an eastern Indian empire ruled by the Naga, corresponds to the Naga colonies in the Dekkan, and on the East coast between the Kaviri and Vaigai rivers.

When you study the Gohonzon you come across the 1. Dragon King’s Daughter. The Dragon Kings daughter was a “Naga Girl.” To a White person or an Asian this means very little, however when it comes to us Black people it is exciting to know that a “Sister was the 1st woman in history to attain enlightenment. When we review history the mother of all mothers is an “African woman.” In the Buddhism of Shakyamuni and Nichiren Daishonin Black woman can be Proud that the 1st woman to attain enlightenment was a “Naga girl.”

The question that we ask if the Dragon King’s daughter was a “Naga Girl” certainly her father was a Naga man. What is important is the fact that Nichiren Daishonin formulated the Gohonzon based on the “Lotus Sutra.” The Lotus Sutra is like a “Black history book.” The Gohonzon is for all of humanity, but the fact remain that the Buddha Shakyamuni was a Naga or Dravidian. This is not racism this is history.