Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c8.s4.t3.1

v1.c8.s4.t3.1

*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