Korea Journal of Buddhist Studies 불교학연구 ISSN:1598-0642(Print)

In the Tang Dynasty, Zhiguang 智廣 (760?-830?) wrote The Record of Siddhaṃ Characters 悉曇字記, pioneering 'siddhaṃ study'. The text is comprised of 18 chapters and 51 characters (12 mātṛkā, 4 nānā-mātṛkā, and 35 characters of vyañjana). In this paper, I focus on the 12 characters of mātṛkā. The 14 sounds of fundamental characters 字本十四音, out of a total foundation of 16 vowels, were already known before the composition of the Record of Siddhaṃ Characters. This is recorded in the translations of the Mahā-parinirvāṇa-sūtra 佛説大般泥洹經 by Faxian 法顯 (337?-422?) and the Mahā-parinirvāṇa-sūtra 大般涅槃經 by Dharmarakṣa 曇無讖 (385-433). In these scriptures there are a total of 16 vowels, of which 14 sounds are considered fundamental characters, excluding aṃ and aḥ. However, the 12 mātṛkā of The Record of Siddhaṃ Characters includes the sounds aṃ and aḥ, and excludes the 4 sounds of nānā-mātṛkā 別摩多. Thus this is simply a redefinition of the 16 vowels that were already known. The Record describes the 12 mātṛkās from 短阿字 to 長痾字, and defines their length, either short or long. That is, in the matter of the 12 mātṛkās, ㆍㆍㆍㆍㆍㆍㆍㆍㆍㆍㆍ, Zhiguang classified ㆍㆍㆍㆍㆍ as short sounds, and ㆍㆍㆍㆍㆍ as long sounds. Yijing 義淨 (635-713) argued that ㆍㆍㆍㆍㆍ are short in front and long in the rear, in agreement with Zhiguang. However, regarding ㆍㆍㆍㆍㆍ, Yijing provided ㆍㆍ are long sounds and ㆍㆍ are short sounds. Among these, later commentaries mention that aṃ and aḥ cannot be categorized as either Zhiguang's short front and long end, or Yijing's long front and short end. In other words, it may be the most accurate representation of these two characters that they may or may not have a distniction of length. Later commentaries on The Record of Siddhaṃ Characters said that this disparity stems from the different customs, geographical, and linguistic differences between Southern India 南天竺 and Central India 中天竺 [Madhyadeśa].