𑗁𑖍𑖼सिद्धिरस्तु
Aum, Siddhar'astu
(Aum, let there be perfection)

Siddham script is a way of encoding information, specifically Sanskrit mantras.
It was used primarily as a go-between in translating and transliterating Sanskrit into Chinese, mostly linked to esoteric Buddhism (mikkyoo).

In Japanese it is referred to as Bonji 梵字 which is made up of the characters Brahma and Character, so it is the script they use in Heaven (basically).

The sage Kuukai 空海 having studied Bonji actually used it as a basis for the Japanese syllables of Hiragana and Katakana.

Something I find super interesting is that it is built for short, very meaningful, 'bija' or seed mantras. So you can vertically stack a lot of information in one character by simple modifications of a somewhat large square brush stroke.

So in a mantra like 'Oṃ Gaṃ Gaṇapataye Namaḥ' the Ganesha mantra to remove obstacles,
which would be rendered in Devanagri as ॐ गं गणपतये नमः
actually you can see the verticality there: 𑖍𑖼 𑖐𑖽 𑖐𑖿𑖜𑖿𑖢𑖿𑖝𑖿𑖧𑖸 𑖡𑖿𑖦𑖾
Um I will post more when I discover it, just wanted to post a basic intro o7

𑗉

Really cool, where do you read about this type of stuff?

^^ if its not showing from the last post, apt install fonts-noto-core should work

oh yeah, and I wanted to mention that the shrinking-verticality aspect is actually called "ligatures", it happens when you use a letter in combination with a 𑖿 (virama) so ma 𑖦 can become 𑖦 -> 𑖿𑖦 ... (you see its half sized and ready to connect)
and then combined with ka 𑖎 to create kama 𑖎𑖿𑖦 for example
...


tons of places, best place to start is direct -- mystic hermitage

here is a breakdown of the bija mantra Hum, how with simple modifications the one syllable can become all the various possible sounds in [the] universe! (if it doesn't make sense, just keep chanting "Hum...")

another (underexplored) avenue is, yes it not only goes from Sanskrit into Chinese or Japanese, but it is also useful in reverse...


I love this anime, Shurato because it uses a lot of Indian and Esoteric Buddhist symbolism in the space of mahou shonen

here you can see the main character's name which is typically rendered as シュラト here we see the characters :
𑖮𑖨𑖳 (ha ruu)
𑖓𑖲𑖨𑖝𑖺 (chu ra to)
so there's an example of it going back from Japanese 🤯

you can see the evolution of Sanskrit to Hiragana by studying Bonji...
sanskrit -> bonji -> japanese
री 𑖨𑖱 り (ri)
रु 𑖨𑖳 る (ru)
𑗇 ゆ (yu) c'mon