Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c8.s2.t2: Siksa
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c8.s2.t2
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Siksa
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Siksa/ Shiksha (式叉论) was ancient Indian phonetics and one of the six Vedas. This term can be found in ancient Chinese literature, especially in Buddhist *sutras* translated into Chinese. The fourth volume of the Lalitavistara *Sutra* translated by Indian monk, Dharmaraksa, in the Tang Dynasty described multiple subjects and techniques that Bodhisattva learned including *Veda*, *Nirukta*, *Siksa*, *Vaisheshika*, *Atharvaveda*, *Ambhiri* and *Hetuvidya*, etc. During the Southern Dynasty, volume I of the *Samkhya* classic *Hiranyasaptati* translated by Master Paramārtha in the Chen Dynasty listed two kinds of wisdom: external and internal, and the six branches of the Vedas were the subjects (disciplines) to
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[Figure: *Books on Sanskrit-Chinese Comparative Studies of Buddhist literature*]
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external wisdom. The six *Vedangas* included *Siksa*, *Vyakarana*, *Kalpa*, *Jyotisa*, *Chhanda* and *Nirukta*. The first article titled Abandoning of Sins and Blessings included in the first volume of Ji Zang's *Commentary* on *One-Hundred-Verse* of the Sui Dynasty quoted the same statement, and explained the six shastras (liulun). The statement was that 'the first was Siksa in which one has to learn 64 different techniques and rules of grammar. The second was Vyakarana, which explained sounds and their etymology'. Further, the 10ᵗʰ volume of *Explanations of Annotations on Dharmagupta-vinaya*, authored by Master Ding Bin of the Tang Dynasty offers an account on six Vedangas. It says that that the discipline of Shiksha meant 'science' here. Actually, *shiksha* was an ancient Indian discipline of phonetics. The task of translation of *sutra* into Chinese by all those Chinese monks seeking Dharma (fa) necessarily required some knowledge on Sanskrit phonology and thus the influence of Sanskrit phonetics on identifying and discovering the four tones of Chinese is perceptible. The study of Sanskrit-Chinese transliteration and the comparison of both Sanskrit and Chinese sounds thus became an important means to study and learn ancient Chinese phonetics.