Siddhaṃ script

Infobox Writing system
name=IAST|Siddhaṃ
type=Abugida
languages=Sanskrit
time=c. 600–c. 1200 in India, and to the present in Japan
region=India China Japan
fam1=Proto-Canaanite alphabet ^[a]
fam2=Phoenician alphabet ^[a]
fam3=Aramaic alphabet ^[a]
footnotes= [a] The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is not universally agreed upon.
fam4=Brāhmī
fam5=Gupta
sisters=Nāgarī
Śāradā
children=Tibetan and its descendants
sample=siddham.jpg
image_size=108px
caption=The word IAST|Siddhaṃ in the IAST|Siddhaṃ script

IAST|Siddhaṃ (Sanskrit सिद्धं, "accomplished" or "perfected") — is the name of a North Indian script used for writing Sanskrit during the period ca 600-1200 CE. 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. There is some confusion over the spelling: "IAST|siddhāṃ" and "IAST|siddhaṃ" are both common. The script is a refinement of the script used during the Indian Gupta Empire. The name arose from the practice of writing the word "IAST|siddhaṃ", or "IAST|siddhaṃ rastu" (may there be perfection) at the head of documents.

IAST|Siddhaṃ is an abugida or alphasyllabary rather than an alphabet because each character indicates a syllable, but it does not include every possible syllable. If no other mark occurs then the short 'a' is assumed. Diacritic marks indicate the other vowels, the pure nasal (anusvāra), and the aspirated vowel (visarga). A special mark (virama) 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.

Many of the Buddhist texts which were taken to China along the Silk Road were written using a version of the IAST|Siddhaṃ 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 IAST|Siddhaṃ Script in East Asia. The practice of writing using IAST|Siddhaṃ survived in East Asia where Tantric Buddhism persisted.

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. By the time Kūkai learned this script, the trading and pilgrimage routes over land to India, were closed by the expanding Islamic empire of the Abbasids.

In Japan the writing of mantras and copying of Sutras using the IAST|Siddhaṃ script is still practiced in the esoteric Buddhist schools of Shingon and Tendai as well as in the syncretic sect of Shugendō. In Japan the characters are known as nihongo|"shittan"|悉曇 or nihongo|"bonji"|梵字. The Taisho edition of the Chinese IAST|Tripiṭaka preserves the IAST|Siddhaṃ characters for most mantras, and Korean Buddhist still write seed syllables in a modified form of IAST|Siddhaṃ. A recent Japanese innovation is writing Japanese language slogans on tee shirts using Bonji. Japanese IAST|Siddhaṃ has evolved from the original script used to write sūtras and is now somewhat different from the ancient script.

It is more typical to see IAST|Siddhaṃ written with brushes like Chinese writing, but it is also written with a bamboo pen.

In the middle of the 9th century, China experienced a series of purges of "foreign religions", thus cutting Japan off from the sources of IAST|Siddhaṃ texts. In time, other scripts, particularly Devanagari, replaced IAST|Siddhaṃ in India, leaving East Asia as the only region where IAST|Siddhaṃ is used.

IAST|Siddhaṃ Fonts

IAST|Siddhaṃ 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 IAST|Siddhaṃ conjunct consonants. Notably the Chinese Buddhist Electronic Texts Association have created a IAST|Siddhaṃ font for their electronic version of the Taisho IAST|Tripiṭaka. The software Mojikyo also contains fonts for Siddham.

A IAST|siddhaṃ input system, IAST|SiddhaṃKey 1.0 has been produced but it has some limitations.

IAST|Siddhaṃ is not included in the Unicode 4.0 standard. As yet there is no firm proposal for a IAST|Siddhaṃ Unicode encoding.

External links

* [http://www.omniglot.com/writing/siddham.htm Siddham alphabet on Omniglot]
* [http://www.visiblemantra.org/index.html Examples of Siddham mantras] with Roman alphabet equivalents
* [http://www.visiblemantra.org/heartsutra.html The Heart Sutra]
* [http://www.siddham.org/yuan_english/mantra/main_mantra.html Examples of Siddham mantras] Chinese language website.
* [http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/scripts.html Scripts and Languages of India]
* [http://www.mandalar.com/DisplayJ/Bonji/index.html Bonji Siddham] Character and Pronunciation
* [http://www.bonjibar.com/E/index.html Bonji Bar] Bonji Decoration Bar in Asakusa, Tokyo
* [http://www.visiblemantra.org/2006_11_01_archive.html Siddham/Japanese writing] on a teeshirt.
* [http://my.opera.com/siddham SiddhamKey] Software for inputting Siddham characters

ources

*Stevens, John . "Sacred Calligraphy of the East". (Boston: Shambala, 1995)
*YAMASAKI, Taikō. "Shingon: Japanese Esoteric Buddhism". (Fresno: Shingon Buddhist International Institute, 1988)
*"Bonji Taikan (梵字大鑑)". (Tōkyō: Meicho Fukyūkai, 1983)