CommentsonnamingtheSiddhamencodingVinodhRajanvrs3@standrews.ac.uk

ShriramanaSharmajamadagni@gmail.com28June2012

Anshuman Pandey has recently submitted a preliminary proposal (L2/12011) for theencoding of the Siddham script in theUCS. There are several alternate names for theproposedscript.Thisdocumentintendstoarriveatasuitablenameforthescriptencoding.SiddhamisthecommonEastAsiannameoftheproposedscript(Salomon,1998,p.39).ItprobablyderivesitsnamefromthewordSiddha()frequentlyseenasaninvocationinmanuscriptsandinscriptions.ThescriptseenthereismerelytheEastAsianvariantofthemainland Indian scriptwhich is sometimes called as SiddhaMtk in texts on Indianepigraphy (Salomon, 1998, p. 39). Based on its appearance it is also called kuila (Skt.curved/bent)(Ojha,1971,p.62).TheearliestavailablerecordoftheIndianvariantofthescriptbeingreferredtoasSiddhaMtkcomesfromtheArabictravelerAlBirunicirca10thcentury(Salomon,1998,p.39).InallprobabilityhewasonlyrecordingthenameasgivenbytheIndiansofhistime.Itisalsointerestingtonotethateveninthe19thcentury,theinvocatoryverseonamasiddhawritten before learning the alphabets was called as SiddhaMatk orsiddhkarasammnyainsomepartsofIndia(Bhler,1898,p.30).The term Siddham,on theotherhand,doesnot seem toappear inanyof theSanskritsources.TheChinese sources,however, refer to the scriptby thename Siddham,evenwhenreferringtothe Indianusage. AChinesemonkChihkuangrecordsthatSiddham isthescriptofIndiainoneofhisworks(Gulik,1967,p.22).ThetermsSiddhamandSiddhaMtkreferringtothescriptaresynonymous.Mtkis the Sanskrit term for alphabet. Hence, SiddhaMtk literally means SiddhamAlphabet. It is similar to theword for scriptviz Lipiusedwith thenamesof the variousIndian scripts suchasNgar Lipi (NagariScript),Grantha Lipi (GranthaScript)etc. In thesameveintheSiddhamscriptinIndiawasknownasSiddhaMatk(SiddhamAlphabet).TheEastAsianvariantof thescript ishighlyornamentalandcalligraphiccompared to theIndianvariant. Butessentially,theyarethesamescriptalbeitwithdifferentstyles,duetothedifference in thewriting implement.The Indianvariantwaswrittenusinga reedpen,whiletheChineseusedabrush(Gulik,1967,p.55).Thus,boththemainlandIndicSiddhaMatkand theEastAsianSiddham shouldbeconsideredas twowritten stylesof thesamescript.

ItisnotcustomaryforUnicodetoincludethewordScripttoanyofthescriptblocks.EventheIndicblocksdonotcontainthelocalizedwordLipialongwiththenameofthescripts.Likewise,thewordMatrika,whichisessentiallythesameasLipi,isalsobetterleftoutoftheofficialnameofthescriptencoding.Also, the short name Siddham is themore popular name for the script compared theelaborate SiddhaMatrika. Thematerialswith the scriptlabel as Siddham are quiteenormouscomparedtothosewhicharelabeledasSiddhaMatrika.ConsideringallthesefactorsitisrecommendedtolabeltheblockandencodethescriptbythenameofSiddham.ThealternateepigraphictermssuchasSiddhaMatrika,Kutilaetcmaybeaddedasaliasestotheblocksname(suchasTaiThambeingannotatedwiththeadditionalnamesLannaandOldTaiLue).References

1. Salomon,R.(1998):IndianEpigraphyaguidetothestudyofinscriptionsinSanskrit,PrakritandtheotherIndoAryanlanguages.NewYork:OxfordUniversityPress.

2. Bhler,G.(1898):OntheoriginoftheIndianBrahmaalphabet.(2nded.).Strassburg:KarlJTrbner.

3. Gulik,R.H.(1956):SiddhamAnessayonthehistoryofSanskritstudiesinChinaandJapan.NewDelhi:InternationalAcademyofIndianCulture.

4. Ojha, G.H. (1971): Bharatiya Prachin Lipimala. (3rd ed). New Delhi: MunshiramManoharlalPublishers.