On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India, 629–645 A.D. v1.c8.s6.14

v1.c8.s6.14

The “Twelve Chapters” of this passage is in the original *Shi-êrh-chang* (十二章) and Julien translates this by “un livre en douze sections”. In a note to this rendering he translates a short passage from a well-known Buddhist Dictionary about a book called the “Siddham-chang”. This is doubtless the sort of work to which the pilgrim refers as the first book which the children of India learned. The name is made up of *Siddham* which means, we are told, “Perfection” or “May good fortune be attained”, and *chang* the Chinese word for a “section” or “chapter”. But Julien makes the whole stand for a Sanskrit compound *Siddhavastu*, a term apparently known only from his use of it. From a passage in I-ching’s “Nan-hai-ch'i-kuei” and from other works we learn that the Siddham-chang was the name of a child’s primer ABC., the first chapter of which was headed by the word *siddham*.¹ This word forms an “auspicious invocation”, and the Buddhists used it alone or with “Namo Sarvajnāya, “Praise to the omniscient [Buddha]” prefixed, at the beginning of their primers. They used it in a similar way to head such documents as deeds of gift to religious establishments. In these places Bühler took the word to mean “Success”, i. e. may there be success, an interpretation which agrees with the accepted Chinese rendering. But Fleet thinks that *siddham* in these places is to be understood as meaning “Perfection has been attained by Buddha”, an interpretation which does not seem to be so good.¹ Instead of siddham the non-Buddhist teachers in India placed "siddhir-astu" meaning "May there be success (or accomplishment)" at the head of their ABCs. Thus these books came to be called Siddham or Siddhir-astu, the former being the name by which they became known to the Chinese. There are many varieties of them and the number of chapters or sections ranges from nine to eighteen, the latter being the number in the work which may be regarded as the standard one in China. This is the Si-tan-tsü-chi (悉曇字記) by the monk Chih-kuang (智廣) of the T'ang period taken from the Siddham of Prajnābodhi of South India. A Siddham gives the Sanskrit alphabet, beginning with the vowels and proceeding in the order in which the letters are given in our Sanskrit grammars, then the combinations made by single consonants and vowels, and then those made by two or more consonants with a vowel. In some of the Siddhams made for Chinese use we are told that this word denotes "the alphabet", while in others we are told that it is a designation for the twelve so-called vowels, but the statements are not borne out by any authority, and are evidently not correct. It may be interesting, however, in connection with subject to quote a statement from Alberuni. He relates—"The most generally known alphabet is called Siddha-mātṛkā, which is by some considered as originating from Kashmir, for the people of Kashmir use it. But it is also used in Vārāṇasi. This town and Kashmir are the high schools of Hindu science. The same writing is used in Madhyadeśa, i. e. the middle country, the country all around Kanauj, which is also called Aryāvarta".² According to I-ching a child began his primer when he was six years of age and learned it within six months.