Siddham

Category: Languages

From Buddhist Encyclopedia

• Japanese :  梵字
• Sanskrit :  सिद्धम,

Siddham (accomplished or perfected), is the name of a North Indian script used for writing Sanskrit. Descended from the Brahmi script via the Gupta script, which also gave rise to the Devanāgarī script as well as a number of other Asian scripts such as Tibetan script.

Siddham is an abugida or alphasyllabary rather than an alphabet because each character indicates a syllable. If no other mark occurs then the short 'a' is assumed. Diacritic marks indicate the other vowels, the pure nasal, and the aspirated vowel. A special mark can be used to indicate that the letter stands alone with no vowel which sometimes happens at the end of Sanskrit words. See links below for examples.

The writing of mantras and copying of Sutras using the Siddham bonji (梵字), in the mikkyo (密教, esoteric Buddhist) schools of Shingon and Tendai Buddhism as well as in the syncretic sect of Shugendō; its use has died out in other places. Kūkai introduced the Siddham script to Japan when he returned from China in 806, where he studied Sanskrit with Nalanda-trained monks including one known as Prajñā. Sutras taken to China from India were written in a variety of scripts, Siddham being one of the most important. By the time Kūkai learned this script, the trading and pilgrimage routes over land to India, part of the Silk Road, were closed by the expanding Islamic empire of the Abbasids. In the middle of the 9th century, a series of purges of "foreign religions" in China, cutting Japan off from the sources of Siddham texts. In time, other scripts, particularly Devanagari, replaced siddham in India, and so Japan was left as the only place where Siddham was preserved, although it was, and continues to be, used solely for writing mantras and copying sutras.

Siddham was influential in the development of the kana writing system, which is also associated with Kūkai — while the kana shapes derive from Chinese characters, the principle of a syllable-based script and their systematic ordering was taken over from Siddham.

References

• Siddham alphabet
• Examples of Siddham mantras with Roman alphabet equivalents
• The Heart Sutra
• Examples of Siddham mantras Chinese language website.
• Scripts and Languages of India
• Bonji Siddham Character&Pronunciation
• John Stevens. Sacred Calligraphy of the East. (Boston: Shambala, 1995)
• Taikō Yamasaki. Shingon: Japanese Esoteric Buddhism. (Fresno: Shingon Buddhist International Institute, 1988)