Siddham letter A

It writes Sanskrit’s short independent vowel a, and can also serve a ritual role. In Shingon, 𑖀 can be a bīja, or seed syllable: a sacred syllable used in Ajikan, a meditation on A shown in a moon disk on a lotus. Shingon teachings connect A with non-arising, emptiness, and Mahāvairocana; these are doctrinal readings, not a universal translation.

Elsewhere, read it first as the vowel in Sanskrit text or as a letter from an older script. The isolated character cannot tell you which deity, sect, or blessing is intended; the object and surrounding writing matter.

Why was Siddham used in Buddhist manuscripts?

It recorded Sanskrit sounds and terms that translation could not carry easily. Siddham was used for Sanskrit in North Indian inscriptions and Buddhist manuscripts; Chinese Buddhist translators later used it for sounds and terms that did not fit an easy translation. Names such as Siddhamātrikā and Kuṭila were used for historical forms or traditions. North Indian inscriptions bearing such names appear from the 6th to about the 10th century. Later forms developed into Śāradā in Kashmir and Punjab, Proto-Bengali or Gauḍī in Bengal and Odisha, and Nāgarī elsewhere in North India.

Buddhist texts carried Siddham into China and Japan. A Buddhist manuscript copied onto palm leaves and kept at Hōryū-ji in Japan was brought from China in 609. Japanese tradition places the monk Kūkai’s introduction of Siddham studies in Japan in 806. As of 2026, Siddham remains in ritual use in Japan’s Shingon and Tendai schools.

Why does the Siddham letter A look different?

The code point identifies the letter; fonts choose its drawn form.

Siddham has regional and historical forms, and Unicode’s representative glyph follows a Japanese shape because Japanese Buddhist practice kept the script in use. On Windows, shaping support does not guarantee that every app displays a nonsystem font correctly. A square or fallback glyph points to a font or app problem, not a new meaning.