Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c8.s4.t3: Siddharastu
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c8.s4.t3
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Siddharastu
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*Siddharastu* It was a set of ancient Indian teaching materials for the beginners to learn Sanskrit, explaining the grammatical knowledge of Sanskrit phonetics and fundamentals such as Sanskrit letters, combinations of initials and finals and some newly formulated coherent words etc. It is said that ‘Siddharastu’ was made by Brahman. The Chinese term ‘Xi-tan’ (“悉昙”) is the transliteration of the Sanskrit word Siddha and its other transliterations in Chinese are– Xi tan (“悉檀”, “悉谈”) and Si tan (“肆昙”) etc. The Sanskrit term Siddham means achievement, attainment, auspiciousness and peaceful abiding. It has been recorded in volume
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Sanskrit text of Prajñāpāramitā Hṛdaya/Heart Sūtra (Bore xinjing) in Siddham script
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two of the *Traveling Notes of the Western Regions in the Great Tang Dynasty* that the most useful materials for the Indians to learn Sanskrit were incorporated in chapter 12 of the book Siddharastu which also had an enlightened message. The fourth chapter titled *Learning Dharma in the West* of Yi Jing’s *An Account of the Inner Law Sent Home from the South Sea* pointed out that Siddharastu occupies the first place among the five main Shabdavidya (sheng-ming lun) works. The Chinese term Xi-tan-zhang (《悉谈章》) is also otherwise named Xi-di-luo-su-du (《悉地罗窣覩》)– the transliteration of the Sanskrit book - Siddharastu. The title also stands for the chapter to begin with and it means "achievement" and "auspiciousness". It is a specialised book of 18 chapters containing 49 Sanskrit letters as the fundamental ones and large number of words and vocabularies formed out of series of mutual combinations. It had over 300 slokas with over 10,000 words in total. Children of the age of six can finish reading Siddharastu within a time period of six months. Yi Jing believed that this book was used by Maheśvara while teaching. Along with the spread and propagation of Buddhism in China during late Han Dynasty, Siddharastu and other relevant texts were introduced to China, and the texts that was exposed earlier were all about the 14 Sanskrit sounds (14 Sanskrit initials) and 42 syllables (42 alphabets). Siddharastu propagated by Hui Yuan was also known as *Siddharastu of Script of Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra* which was quite popular in most of the areas of the land. Multiple transcripts (S.4583, P.2204, P.2212, P.3082 and P.3099 etc.) of Siddharastu have been unearthed in Dun Huang cave with different titles such as *Popular Siddharastu* and *Chan Siddharastu of Lankavatara Sutra Preached by Buddha* etc. Many monks and men of letters studied *Siddharastu* in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Buddhist masters such as Xuanzang, Yi Jing, Buddhapālita and Kong Hai propagated *Siddharastu* and Indian monks including Bao Yue and Nanda also orally propagated it. The Chinese monk Zhi Guangshi learned *Siddharastu* from South Indian *Tripitaka Prajna-bodhi* and wrote a book named *Records of the Siddham Script*.
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Yi Jing in the preface to his work titled *One Thousand Sanskrit Words* said that people can begin to translate Buddhist sutras after learning *Siddharastu*, the *One Thousand Sanskrit Words* and few other Sanskrit lessons. After the introduction of Siddharastu into China, Chinese scholars mixed language, religion and cultural knowledge of China and India, and brought out some integrated philosophical works that included some Buddhist doctrines on the basis of their linguistic study. All this led to the growth of a unique field of study and research that came to be known as the Siddham Studies (Siddham Science). The Chinese *Siddham Studies* (science) can be regarded as a new paradigm with marked innovations that were considerably influenced by Indian culture. The growth and propagation of *Siddham Studies* in China was not only closely linked to the local Buddhist schools such as Fa-xiang School, Hua-yan School, Tantrism, Tian-tai School and Chan School etc, but it exerted considerable influence on translation of the Buddhist *sutra*, propagation and learning of the Sanskrit words and development of Chinese characters. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the merger of the study of Siddharastu with Chinese phonology led to the research and compilation of famous works such as Zhao Huanguang's *An Account of Siddharastu* and Zhou Chun's *Profound Treatise on Siddharastu* etc. Aside from its effect on the growth of Chinese phonology, *Siddharastu* also affected the growth of rhythm of the poems and prose poems composed by eminent scholars and poets of that period. After the knowledge of *Siddham* studies (science) was propagated by envoys (monks seeking Dharma) in the Tang Dynasty into Japan, the Japanese monk An Ran in the Heian period (794-1185/1192 CE), wrote representative works of *Siddham* science named *Siddham Treasure in Japan* which further led to the expansion and popularity of ancient Indian culture in different areas of east Asia.
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(*Chen Ming*)
Linked texts (1)
- Laṅkāvatārasūtra — Sanskrit