8/28/2019 Siddhaṃ script - Wikipedia

Siddhaṃ script
Siddha ṃ (also Siddhāṃ[3]), also known in its later evolved form as
Siddhamātṛkā,[4] is a medieval Brahmic abugida, derived from the
Siddhaṃ
Gupta script and ancestral to the Assamese alphabets, Bengali alphabet,
Maithili alphabet[5], and the Tibetan alphabet.

The word Siddhaṃ means "accomplished" or "perfected" in Sanskrit. The

script received its name from the practice of writing Siddhaṃ, or
The word Siddhaṃ in the Siddhaṃ script
Siddhaṃ astu (may there be perfection), at the head of documents. Other
names for the script include bonji (Japanese: 梵字) lit. "Brahma's Type Abugida
characters" and "Sanskrit script" and Chinese: 悉 曇 ⽂ 字 ; pinyin: Xītán Languages Sanskrit
wénzi lit. "Siddhaṃ script". Time c. late 6th century[1] – c.
period 1200 CE [2]
Siddhaṃ is an abugida rather than an alphabet, as each character
indicates a syllable, including a consonant and (possibly) a vowel. If the Parent Aramaic alphabet[a]
systems
vowel sound is not explicitly indicated, the short 'a' is assumed. Diacritic
Brahmi script
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 Gupta
alone with no vowel, which sometimes happens at the end of Sanskrit
words.
Siddhaṃ

Child
systems Bengali-Assamese script

Contents Assamese alphabet

Bengali alphabet
History
The script Tirhuta alphabet
Vowels Tibetan script
Consonants
Sister Nāgarī
Conjuncts systems Śāradā
ṛ syllables
Some sample syllables Direction Left-to-right
Siddhaṃ fonts ISO 15924 Sidd, 302

Unicode Unicode Siddham

Notes alias
Sources Unicode U+11580–U+115FF (https://
range www.unicode.org/charts/PD
External links
F/U11580.pdf)
Final Accepted Script Proposal
History (https://www.unicode.org/L2/L
2012/12234r-n4294-siddham.p
The Siddham script evolved from the Gupta Brahmi script in the late 6th
df)
century CE.[1]
Variant Forms (https://www.u
Many Buddhist texts taken to China along the Silk Road were written
nicode.org/L2/L2013/13110r-
using a version of the Siddhaṃ script. This continued to evolve, and
n4407.pdf)
minor variations are seen across time, and in different regions.
Importantly it was used for transmitting the Buddhist tantra texts. At the
a. The Semitic origin of the Brahmic
time it was considered important to preserve the pronunciation of scripts is not universally agreed upon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhaṃ_script#Siddha.E1.B9.83_Fonts 1/7
8/28/2019 Siddhaṃ script - Wikipedia

mantras, and Chinese was not suitable for writing the sounds of Sanskrit. This
led to the retention of the Siddhaṃ script in East Asia. The practice of writing
using Siddhaṃ survived in East Asia where Tantric Buddhism persisted.

Kūkai introduced the Siddhaṃ script to Japan when he returned from China in
806, where he studied Sanskrit with Nalanda-trained monks including one
known as Prajñā (Chinese: 般若三藏; pinyin: Bōrě Sāncáng, 734–c. 810). By the
time Kūkai learned this script, the trading and pilgrimage routes over land to
India had been closed by the expanding Abbasid Caliphate.[7]

In Japan, the writing of mantras and copying/reading of sutras using the

Siddhaṃ script is still practiced in the esoteric schools of Shingon Buddhism Siddhaṃ manuscript of the Heart
Sutra. Bibliothèque nationale de
and Tendai as well as in the syncretic sect of Shugendō. The characters are
known as shittan ( 悉曇 ) or bonji ( 梵字 , Chinese: Fànzì). The Taishō Tripiṭaka France

version of the Chinese Buddhist canon preserves the Siddhaṃ characters for
most mantras, and Korean Buddhists still write bījas in a modified form of
Siddhaṃ. A recent innovation is the writing of Japanese language slogans on T-
shirts using Bonji. Japanese Siddhaṃ has evolved from the original script used
to write sūtras and is now somewhat different from the ancient script.[8][9][10]

It is typical to see Siddhaṃ written with a brush, as with Chinese writing; it is A reproduction of the palm-leaf
朴
also written with a bamboo pen. In Japan, a special brush called a bokuhitsu ( manuscript in Siddham script,
筆 , Cantonese: pokbat) is used for formal Siddhaṃ calligraphy. The informal originally held at Hōryū-ji Temple,
style is known as "fude" (筆, Cantonese: "moubat").
Japan; now located in the Tokyo
National Museum at the Gallery of
In the middle of the 9th century, China experienced a series of purges of "foreign Hōryū—ji Treasure. The original
copy may be the earliest extant
religions", thus cutting Japan off from the sources of Siddhaṃ texts. In time,
Sanskrit manuscript of the Heart
other scripts, particularly Devanagari, replaced Siddhaṃ in India, while in Sutra dated to the 7th–8th century
Eastern South Asia (including Assam, Bengal, Bihar etc), Siddhaṃ evolved to CE. It also contains the Sanskrit text
become the Bengali script, Tirhuta script and Anga script, leaving East Asia as of the Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī Sūtra
the only region where Siddhaṃ is still used. and the final line shows the
Siddhaṃ abugida.[6]
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.[11]

With regards to directionality, Siddhaṃ texts were usually read from left-to-
right then top-to-bottom, as with Indic languages, but occasionally they were Chinese use of the Siddhaṃ script
for the Pratisara mantra, from the
written in the traditional Chinese style, from top-to-bottom then right-to-left.
Later Tang. 927 CE
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 look sideways).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhaṃ_script#Siddha.E1.B9.83_Fonts 2/7
8/28/2019 Siddhaṃ script - Wikipedia

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.

The script

Vowels

As
Independent As diacritic Independent
Romanized Romanized diacritic
form with form with

a ā Chinese use of the Siddhaṃ script

for the Mahāpratyaṅgirā mantra.
i ī 971 CE

u ū

e ai

o au

aṃ aḥ

As
Independent As diacritic Independent
Romanized Romanized diacritic
form with form with

ṛ ṝ

ḷ ḹ

Alternative forms

Siddhaṃ Bijakshara A, Daishō-in,

ā i i ī ī u ū o au aṃ
Miyajima

Consonants

Mirror with bijaksharas, Miyajima

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhaṃ_script#Siddha.E1.B9.83_Fonts 3/7
8/28/2019 Siddhaṃ script - Wikipedia

Stop
Approximant Fricative
Tenuis Aspirated Voiced Breathy voiced Nasal

Glottal h

Velar k kh g gh ṅ

Palatal c ch j jh ñ y ś

Retroflex ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ r ṣ

Dental t th d dh n l s

Bilabial p ph b bh m

Labiodental v

Conjuncts in
alphabet

kṣ llaṃ

Alternative forms

ch j ñ ṭ ṭh ḍh ḍh ṇ ṇ th th dh n m ś ś v

Conjuncts
k kṣ -ya -ra -la -va -ma -na

k kya kra kla kva kma kna

rk rkya rkra rkla rkva rkma rkna

kh

    total 68 rows.

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

ṅka ṅkha ṅga ṅgha

ñca ñcha ñja ñjha

ṇṭa ṇṭha ṇḍa ṇḍha

nta ntha nda ndha

mpa mpha mba mbha

ṅya ṅra ṅla ṅva

ṅśa ṅṣa ṅsa ṅha ṅkṣa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhaṃ_script#Siddha.E1.B9.83_Fonts 4/7
8/28/2019 Siddhaṃ script - Wikipedia

ska skha dga dgha ṅktra

vja/bja jña
vca/bca vcha/bcha vjha/bjha

ṣṭa ṣṭha dḍa dḍha ṣṇa

sta stha rtsna

vda/bda vdha/bdha

spa spha dba dbha

rkṣma

rkṣvya rkṣvrya lta tkva

ṭśa ṭṣa sha bkṣa

pta ṭka dsva ṭṣchra

jja ṭṭa ṇṇa tta nna mma lla vva

Alternative forms of conjuncts that contain ṇ.

ṇṭa ṇṭha ṇḍa ṇḍha

ṛ syllables

Siddhaṃ alphabet by Kūkai (774–

835)

kṛ khṛ gṛ ghṛ ṅṛ cṛ chṛ jṛ jhṛ ñṛ

Some sample syllables

rka rkā rki rkī rku rkū rke rkai rko rkau rkaṃ rkaḥ

ṅka ṅkā ṅki ṅkī ṅku ṅkū ṅke ṅkai ṅko ṅkau ṅkaṃ ṅkaḥ

Siddhaṃ fonts
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 Siddhaṃ conjunct consonants. Notably, the Chinese Buddhist Electronic Texts
Association has created a Siddhaṃ font for their electronic version of the Taisho Tripiṭaka, 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 Siddhaṃ input system which relies on the CBETA font Siddhamkey 3.0 has been produced.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhaṃ_script#Siddha.E1.B9.83_Fonts 5/7
8/28/2019 Siddhaṃ script - Wikipedia

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:

Siddham[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U11580.pdf) (PDF)

  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

U+1158x

U+1159x

U+115Ax

U+115Bx

U+115Cx

U+115Dx

U+115Ex

U+115Fx

Notes

1.^ As of Unicode version 12.0

2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Notes
1. Singh, Upinder (2008). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Delhi:
Pearson. p. 43. ISBN 9788131716779.
2. Its usage survives into the modern period for liturgical purposes in Japan and Korea.
3. Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary, page 1215, col. 1 http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/monier/
4. Rajan, Vinodh; Sharma, Shriramana (2012-06-28). "L2/12-221: Comments on naming the "Siddham" encoding" (http
s://www.unicode.org/L2/L2012/12221-siddham-naming.pdf) (PDF). Retrieved 2014-08-19.
5. "Devanagari: Development, Amplification, and Standardisation" (https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=S_4QAAAAMAA
J&q=siddham+script+maithili&dq=siddham+script+maithili&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjasKP66NfYAhVBLcAKHR0-B
0IQ6AEIJDAA). Central Hindi Directorate, Ministry of Education and Social Welfare, Govt. of India. 3 April 1977.
Retrieved 3 April 2018 – via Google Books.
6. e-museum 2018   Ink on pattra (palmyra leaves used for writing upon) ink on paper Heart Sutra: 4.9x28.0 Dharani:
4.9x27.9/10.0x28.3 Late Gupta period/7–8th century Tokyo National Museum N-8.
7. Pandey, Anshuman (2012-08-01). "N4294: Proposal to Encode the Siddham Script in ISO/IEC 10646" (https://www.uni
code.org/L2/L2012/12234r-n4294-siddham.pdf) (PDF). Working Group Document, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2.
8. SM Dine, 2012, Sanskrit Beyond Text: The Use of Bonji (Siddham) in Mandala and Other Imagery in Ancient and
Medieval Japan (https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/bitstream/handle/1773/20584/Dine_washington_0250
O_10572.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y), University of Washington.
9. Siddhaṃ : the perfect script (http://www.visiblemantra.org/siddham.html).
10. Buddhism guide: Shingon (http://buddhism-guide.com/buddhism/shingon.htm).
11. Kawabata, Taichi; Suzuki, Toshiya; Nagasaki, Kiyonori; Shimoda, Masahiro (2013-06-11). "N4407R: Proposal to
Encode Variants for Siddham Script" (https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2013/13110r-n4407.pdf) (PDF). Working Group
Document, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhaṃ_script#Siddha.E1.B9.83_Fonts 6/7
8/28/2019 Siddhaṃ script - Wikipedia

Sources
Bonji Taikan ( 梵字⼤鑑). (Tōkyō: Meicho Fukyūkai, 1983)
Chaudhuri, Saroj Kumar (1998). Siddham in China and Japan (https://web.archive.org/web/20131003111835/http://ww
w.sino-platonic.org/complete/spp088_siddham_china_japan.pdf), Sino-Platonic papers No. 88
e-Museum, National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties of National Museums, Japan (2018), "Sanskrit Version
of Heart Sutra and Viyaya Dharani" (http://www.emuseum.jp/detail/100625/001/004?word=&d_lang=en&s_lang=&class
=&title=&c_e=&region=&era=&cptype=&owner=&pos=1&num=1&mode=&century=t), e-Museum
Stevens, John. Sacred Calligraphy of the East. (Boston: 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.)

External links
Muktamsiddham—Free Unicode Siddham font (http://mihafont.seesaa.net/category/8954752-1.html) (pre Unicode 7.0,
mapped to Devanagari codepoints)
ApDevaSiddham (http://azahuse.web.fc2.com/sansc.html)—(Japanese) Free Unicode 8.0 Siddham Font (mirror (http://
siddham.shikisokuzekuu.net/))
Siddham alphabet on Omniglot (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/siddham.htm)
Examples of Siddham mantras (http://www.siddham.org/yuan_english/mantra/main_mantra.html) Chinese language
website.
Visible Mantra (http://www.visiblemantra.org) an extensive collection of mantras and some sūtras in Siddhaṃ script
Bonji Siddham (http://www.mandalar.com/DisplayJ/Bonji/index.html) Character and Pronunciation
SiddhamKey (https://web.archive.org/web/20080104215817/http://my.opera.com/siddham) Software for inputting
Siddham characters

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Siddhaṃ_script&oldid=910901615"

This page was last edited on 15 August 2019, at 08:03 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation,
Inc., a non-profit organization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhaṃ_script#Siddha.E1.B9.83_Fonts 7/7