Siddham
The Siddham script is a type of Indian Brahmi script that is mostly only dominated by priests and initiates .
term
The Sanskrit word literally means completion . The Siddham script is a precursor to the Devanagari . Siddham is only used by the Japanese Shingon Buddhists today and is no longer in use in India, the country of origin. In Japanese it is pronounced as shittan ( Japanese 悉 曇 ) or transcribed as bonji ( 梵字 ) for “Sanskrit characters”.
The name Siddham is derived from the formula siddham astu (Sanskrit for: " Let there be perfection ", more freely for example: Long live perfection ), which was used as an introduction to every text in the Gupta period of India (between the third and sixth centuries). As a result, the name Siddham was transferred to the script associated with the Gupta period. At first only Sanskrit was written in Siddham, but later texts of related languages were also written in Siddham, which were mainly written down in other scripts, e.g. B. Pâli .
history
In 806 Siddham was introduced to Japan from China by the monk Kūkai . Knowledge of this alphabetical script, as opposed to the Chinese script, was an essential factor in the systematization of the Japanese kana syllable scripts, which, however, represent simplifications of Chinese characters. In Japan they are often found on tombs in Gorintō -form (" Stupa of the Five Rings").
In June 2014 the font was included in the Unicode 7.0 standard as the Unicode block Siddham (U + 11580 – U + 115FF).
Character map
Vowels
isolated Transcription as a diacritical
mark with
isolated Transcription as a diacritical
mark with
a 
- 
i 
ī 
u 
ū 
e 
ai 
O 
ouch 
at the 
Ah 
isolated Transcription as a diacritical
mark with
isolated Transcription as a diacritical
mark with
ṛ 
ṝ 
ḷ 
ḹ
Consonants
Tenuis aspirated voiced voiced breath nasal Glottal 
H
Velare 
k
kh
G
gh
ṅ
Palatal 
c
ch
j
century
ñ
y
ś
Retroflexes 
ṭ
ṭh
ḍ
ḍh
ṇ
r
ṣ
Dental 
t
th
d
ie
n
l
s
Bilabial 
p
ph
b
bra
m
Labiodentale 
v
Individual evidence
- ↑ Unicode 7.0.0. Unicode Consortium, June 16, 2014, accessed June 17, 2014 .
literature
- Bonji taikan [Calligraphy Manual for Siddham, Japanese]. Tokyo: Meicho Fukyūkai, 1983. ISBN 4-89551-115-4
- Chaudhuri, Saroj Kumar; Siddham in China and Japan (PDF; 8.6 MB); Sino-Platonic papers, No. 88
- John Stevens: Sacred Calligraphy of the East. Shambhala Publications Inc. 3rd edition 1996.
- Robert van Gulik : Siddham. An Essay on the History of Sanskrit Studies in China and Japan. In: Sarasvati-Vihara Series Volume 36 (1956). New Delhi reprint: Jayyed Press, 1981
- Wilhelm Schiffer: Review of Siddham. An Essay on the History of Sanskrit Studies in China and Japan, by RH van Gulik . In: Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 13, No. 1/2 (Apr.-Jul., 1957), pp. 180-181.
