Siddhaṃ script

(also ) is an Indic script used in India from the 6th century to the 13th century. Also known in its later evolved form as Siddhamātṛkā, Siddham is a medieval Brahmic abugida, derived from the Gupta script and ancestral to the Nāgarī, Eastern Nagari, Tirhuta, Odia and Nepalese scripts. The Siddham script was widely used by Indian Buddhists and still remains in use by East Asian Buddhists, especially for writing mantras, seed syllables, and dharanis.

The word means "accomplished", "completed" or "perfected" in Sanskrit. The script received its name from the practice of writing , or ('may there be perfection'), at the head of documents. Other names for the script include bonji (Template:Langx) "Brahma's characters" and "Sanskrit script" and Template:Zh "Siddhaṃ script".

History

File:Prajnyaapaaramitaa Hridaya Pel.sogd.jpg

A Siddhaṃ manuscript of the Heart Sutra. Bibliothèque nationale de France

The script evolved from the Gupta Brahmi script in the late 6th century CE.

Many Buddhist texts taken to China along the Silk Road were written using a version of the script. This continued to evolve, and minor variations are seen across time, and in different regions. Importantly, it was used for transmitting the Buddhist tantra texts. At the time it was considered important to preserve the pronunciation of mantras, and Chinese was not suitable for writing the sounds of Sanskrit. This led to the retention of the script in East Asia. The practice of writing using survived in East Asia where Chinese Esoteric Buddhism persisted.

Kūkai introduced the script to Japan when he returned from China in 806, where he studied Sanskrit with Nalanda-trained monks including one known as Prajñā (Template:Zh; 734–c. Template:Trim). By the time Kūkai learned this script, the trading and pilgrimage routes over land to India had been closed by the expanding Abbasid Caliphate.

In the middle of the 9th century, China experienced a series of purges of "foreign religions", thus cutting Japan off from the sources of texts. In time, other scripts, particularly Devanagari, replaced in India, while 's northeastern derivative called Gaudi evolved to become the Eastern Nagari, Tirhuta, Odia and also the Nepalese scripts in the eastern and northeastern regions of South Asia, leaving East Asia as the only region where is still used.

There were special forms of Siddhaṃ used in Korea that varied significantly from those used in China and Japan, and there is evidence that Siddhaṃ was written in Central Asia, as well, by the early 7th century.

As was done with Chinese characters, Japanese Buddhist scholars sometimes created multiple characters with the same phonological value to add meaning to Siddhaṃ characters. This practice, in effect, represents a 'blend' of the Chinese style of writing and the Indian style of writing and allows Sanskrit texts in Siddhaṃ to be differentially interpreted as they are read, as was done with Chinese characters that the Japanese had adopted. This led to multiple variants of the same characters.

Characteristics

is an abugida rather than an alphabet, as each character indicates a syllable, including a consonant and (possibly) a vowel. If the vowel sound is not explicitly indicated, the short 'a' is assumed. Diacritic marks are used to indicate other vowels, as well as the anusvara and visarga. A virama can be used to indicate that the consonant letter stands alone with no vowel, which sometimes happens at the end of Sanskrit words.

Siddhaṃ texts were usually written from left to right then top to bottom, as with other Brahmic scripts, but occasionally they were written in the traditional Chinese style, from top to bottom then right to left. Bilingual Siddhaṃ-Japanese texts show the manuscript turned 90 degrees clockwise and the Japanese is written from top to bottom, as is typical of Japanese, and then the manuscript is turned back again, and the Siddhaṃ writing is continued from left to right (the resulting Japanese characters appear sideways).

Over time, additional markings were developed, including punctuation marks, head marks, repetition marks, end marks, special ligatures to combine conjuncts and rarely to combine syllables, and several ornaments of the scribe's choice, which are not currently encoded. The nuqta is also used in some modern Siddhaṃ texts.

Vowels

Independent form	Bound form on Template:Angbr	Independent form	Bound form on Template:Angbr
Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter
Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter
Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter
Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter
Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter
Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter

Alternative forms

File:Siddham aa1.svg

File:Siddham i1.svg

File:Siddham i2.svg

File:Siddham ii1.svg

File:Siddham ii2.svg

File:Siddham u1.svg

File:Siddham uu1.svg

File:Siddham o1.svg

File:Siddham au1.svg

File:Siddham am1.svg

Independent form	Bound form on Template:Angbr	Independent form	Bound form on Template:Angbr
Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter
Template:Letter		Template:Letter

Consonants

	Stop					Approximant	Fricative
	Tenuis	Aspirated	Voiced	Breathy voiced	Nasal
Glottal							Template:Letter
Velar	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter
Palatal	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter
Retroflex	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter
Dental	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter
Bilabial	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter	Template:Letter
Labiodental						Template:Letter

Conjuncts in alphabet

Template:Letter

Template:Letter

Alternative forms

File:Siddham ch1.svg

File:Siddham j1.svg

File:Siddham ny.svg

File:Siddham tt1.svg

File:Siddham tth1.svg

File:Siddham ddh1.svg

File:Siddham ddh2.svg

File:Siddham nn1.svg

File:Siddham nn3.svg

File:Siddham th1.svg

File:Siddham th2.svg

File:Siddham dh.svg

File:Siddham n2.svg

File:Siddham m1.svg

File:Siddham sh.svg

File:Siddham sh2.svg

File:Siddham v.svg

Conjuncts

k$\cdots$kṣ	-ya	-ra	-la	-va	-ma	-na
Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham k.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham kya.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham kra.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham kla.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham kva.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham kma.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham kna1.svg
Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rka.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rkya.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rkra.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rkla.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rkva.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rkma.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rkna.svg
Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham kh.svg	$\cdots$
$⋮$    total 68 rows.

• ↑ The combinations that contain adjoining duplicate letters should be deleted in this table.

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngka1.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngkha.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngga1.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham nggha.svg
Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham nyca.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham nycha.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham nyja1.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham nyjha.svg
Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham nntta.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham nnttha.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham nndda.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham nnddha.svg
Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham nta.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ntha.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham nda.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ndha1.svg
Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham mpa.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham mpha.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham mba.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham mbha.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngya1.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngra.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngla.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngva.svg
Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngsha.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngssa.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngsa.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngha.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngkssa.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ska.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham skha.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham dga.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham dgha.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngktra.svg
Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham wca.svg /	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham wcha.svg /	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham wja.svg /	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham wjha.svg /	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham jny1.svg
Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham sstta.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ssttha.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ddda.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham dddha.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ssnya.svg
Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham sta.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham stha.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham wda.svg /	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham wdha.svg /	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rtsna.svg
Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham spa.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham spha.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham dba.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham dbha.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rkssma.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rkssvya.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rkssvrya.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham lta.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham tkva.svg
Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ttsha2.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ttssa.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham sha.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham bkssa.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham pta.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ttka.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham dsva.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ttsschra.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham jja.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ttttta.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham nnnna.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham tta.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham nna2.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham mma.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham lla.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham vva.svg

$\cdots$

Alternative forms of conjuncts that contain .

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham nntta1.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham nnttha1.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham nndda1.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham nnddha1.svg

ṛ syllables

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham kri.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham khri.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham gri.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ghri.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngri.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham cri.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham chri.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham jri.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham jhri.svg

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham nyri.svg

$\cdots$

Some sample syllables

Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rka.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rkaa.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rki.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rkii.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rku.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rkuu.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rke.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rkai.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rko.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rkau.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rkam.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham rkah.svg
Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngka1.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngkaa.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngki.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngkii.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngku.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngkuu.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngke.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngkai.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngko.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngkau.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngkam.svg	Template:Script/Siddham File:Siddham ngkah.svg

Usage

In Japan, the writing of mantras and copying/reading of sutras using the script is still practiced in the esoteric schools of Shingon Buddhism and Tendai as well as in the syncretic sect of Shugendō. The characters are known as or . The Taishō Tripiṭaka version of the Chinese Buddhist canon preserves the characters for most mantras, and Korean Buddhists still write bījas in a modified form of . A recent innovation is the writing of Japanese language slogans on T-shirts using Bonji. Japanese has evolved from the original script used to write sūtras and is now somewhat different from the ancient script.

It is typical to see written with a brush, as with Chinese writing; it is also written with a bamboo pen. In Japan, a special brush called a is used for formal calligraphy. The informal style is known as .

Siddhaṃ fonts

is still largely a hand written script. Some efforts have been made to create computer fonts, though to date none of these are capable of reproducing all of the conjunct consonants. Notably, the Chinese Buddhist Electronic Texts Association has created a font for their electronic version of the Taisho , though this does not contain all possible conjuncts. The software Mojikyo also contains fonts for Siddhaṃ, but split Siddhaṃ in different blocks and requires multiple fonts to render a single document.

A input system which relies on the CBETA font Siddhamkey 3.0 has been produced.

Unicode

Siddhaṃ script was added to the Unicode Standard in June 2014 with the release of version 7.0.

The Unicode block for Siddhaṃ is U+11580–U+115FF:

Gallery

This is a gallery of example usages of the Siddham script.

• A reproduction of the palm-leaf manuscript in Siddham script, originally held at Hōryū-ji Temple, Japan; now located in the Tokyo National Museum at the Gallery of Hōryū—ji Treasure. The original copy may be the earliest extant Sanskrit manuscript of the Heart Sutra dated to the 7th–8th century CE. It also contains the Sanskrit text of the Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī Sūtra and the final line shows the Siddhaṃ abugida.Template:Sfn
  A reproduction of the palm-leaf manuscript in Siddham script, originally held at Hōryū-ji Temple, Japan; now located in the Tokyo National Museum at the Gallery of Hōryū—ji Treasure. The original copy may be the earliest extant Sanskrit manuscript of the Heart Sutra dated to the 7th–8th century CE. It also contains the Sanskrit text of the Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī Sūtra and the final line shows the Siddhaṃ abugida.Template:Sfn
• Chinese use of the Siddhaṃ script for the Pratisara mantra, from the Later Tang. 927 CE
  Chinese use of the Siddhaṃ script for the Pratisara mantra, from the Later Tang. 927 CE
• Chinese use of the Siddhaṃ script for the Mahāpratyaṅgirā mantra. 971 CE
  Chinese use of the Siddhaṃ script for the Mahāpratyaṅgirā mantra. 971 CE
• Siddhaṃ Bijakshara A, Daishō-in, Miyajima
  Siddhaṃ Bijakshara A, Daishō-in, Miyajima
• Mirror with bijaksharas, Miyajima
  Mirror with bijaksharas, Miyajima
• A stone inscription of the Buddhist Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī Sūtra at Asakusa Temple in Tokyo using Siddham script.
  A stone inscription of the Buddhist Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī Sūtra at Asakusa Temple in Tokyo using Siddham script.
• Siddhaṃ alphabet by Kūkai (774–835)
  Siddhaṃ alphabet by Kūkai (774–835)
• A Buddhist altar in Kawasaki, Japan showing a devotional mantra inscribed in Siddham to Shakyamuni Buddha with Japanese pronunciation guide
  A Buddhist altar in Kawasaki, Japan showing a devotional mantra inscribed in Siddham to Shakyamuni Buddha with Japanese pronunciation guide
• Shorter Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra written in katakana, Siddhaṃ scripts and kanji. This book was published in 1773 in Japan.
  Shorter Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra written in katakana, Siddhaṃ scripts and kanji. This book was published in 1773 in Japan.

References

Sources

• Bonji Taikan (梵字大鑑). (Tōkyō: Meicho Fukyūkai, 1983)
• Chaudhuri, Saroj Kumar (1998). Siddham in China and Japan, Sino-Platonic papers No. 88
• Stevens, John. Sacred Calligraphy of the East. (Boston, MA: Shambala, 1995.)
• Van Gulik, R.H. Siddham: An Essay on the History of Sanskrit Studies in China and Japan (New Delhi, Jayyed Press, 1981).
• Yamasaki, Taikō. Shingon: Japanese Esoteric Buddhism. (Fresno: Shingon Buddhist International Institute, 1988.)
• Chandra, Lokesh (1965) Sanskrit bījas and mantras in Japan, New Delhi , International Academy of Indian Culture, BQ5125.B5 A75 1965

External links

• Fonts:
  • Noto Sans Siddham from the Noto fonts project
  • Muktamsiddham—Free Unicode Siddham font
  • ApDevaSiddham—(Japanese) Free Unicode 8.0 Siddham Font (mirror)
• Siddham alphabet on Omniglot
• Examples of Siddham mantras Chinese language website.
• Visible Mantra an extensive collection of mantras and some sūtras in Siddhaṃ script
• Bonji Siddham Character and Pronunciation
• SiddhamKey Software for inputting Siddham characters