Siddhaṃ script marks

Indian letters preserved in Japan.

In Sanskrit:: सिद्धं
In Japanese:: 悉曇
In Japanese (Latin):: Shittan

CulturalHistorical & archaeologicalReligiousStandard profile

Meanings

The marks of the Siddhaṃ script, carried to East Asia with Buddhism and preserved there after falling out of use in India.

Historically documentedVerified fact
Write and divide Sanskrit text in the Siddhaṃ script.
Contexts: History, Religion
Culturally establishedVerified fact
Preserved in Japanese Shingon practice as the correct script for writing mantra seed-syllables long after India had moved to Devanagari, so the living tradition is East Asian and the script is Indian.
Contexts: History, Religion
Historically documentedVerified fact
Written with a brush in the East Asian tradition, which changed the letterforms: the same script has a reed-pen shape in its Indian sources and a brush shape in its Japanese ones.
Contexts: History, Religion

Visual description

Vowel marks, section dividers and seed-syllable forms in the angular Siddhaṃ hand, written in East Asia with a brush rather than a reed.

Symmetry: none
Orientation: upright

Associated with: Siddham invocation mark
The invocation mark gave the script its name.

Confidence

IdentityHigh confidence: High confidence because the identity is documented in encyclopedic references.
Historical originModerate confidence: Moderate confidence because the historical origin is documented in encyclopedic references, but the regional or cultural match to this specific claim is not precise.
Current useHigh confidence: High confidence because the current use is documented in encyclopedic references.
Visual matchHigh confidence: High confidence because the visual match is documented in encyclopedic references.

Sources

The Unicode Standard: South Asian scripts and their combining marks
The Unicode Consortium · retrieved 2026-08-27
Cited for the identity, name and encoded behaviour of a character or combining mark. Unicode names a character and describes its rendering; it is not a source for how a mark is used in any living orthography, which is cited separately.
Devanagari manuscript and editorial conventions
Oxford University Press and the Clay Sanskrit Library editions · retrieved 2026-08-27
Scholarly editions, cited for the identity and function of the marks used in Sanskrit manuscript and printing. Editorial practice varies between traditions and editions; where it does, the record says so rather than presenting one convention as the convention.

Last reviewed 2026-08-27

Help improve this page

Meanings

The marks of the Siddhaṃ script, carried to East Asia with Buddhism and preserved there after falling out of use in India.

Historically documentedVerified fact

Write and divide Sanskrit text in the Siddhaṃ script.

Contexts: History, Religion

Culturally establishedVerified fact

Preserved in Japanese Shingon practice as the correct script for writing mantra seed-syllables long after India had moved to Devanagari, so the living tradition is East Asian and the script is Indian.

Contexts: History, Religion

Historically documentedVerified fact

Written with a brush in the East Asian tradition, which changed the letterforms: the same script has a reed-pen shape in its Indian sources and a brush shape in its Japanese ones.

Contexts: History, Religion

Confidence

IdentityHigh confidence: High confidence because the identity is documented in encyclopedic references.
Historical originModerate confidence: Moderate confidence because the historical origin is documented in encyclopedic references, but the regional or cultural match to this specific claim is not precise.
Current useHigh confidence: High confidence because the current use is documented in encyclopedic references.
Visual matchHigh confidence: High confidence because the visual match is documented in encyclopedic references.

Sources

The Unicode Standard: South Asian scripts and their combining marks
The Unicode Consortium · retrieved 2026-08-27
Cited for the identity, name and encoded behaviour of a character or combining mark. Unicode names a character and describes its rendering; it is not a source for how a mark is used in any living orthography, which is cited separately.
Devanagari manuscript and editorial conventions
Oxford University Press and the Clay Sanskrit Library editions · retrieved 2026-08-27
Scholarly editions, cited for the identity and function of the marks used in Sanskrit manuscript and printing. Editorial practice varies between traditions and editions; where it does, the record says so rather than presenting one convention as the convention.

Last reviewed 2026-08-27

Meanings

Visual description

Related & commonly confused symbols

Meanings

Visual description

Related & commonly confused symbols