Om namah siddham, Siddhamaat.rkaa, etc.

[Richard Salomon]

There is a little further information on these matters in G. Buhler's On
the Origin of the Indian Brahma Alphabet,  p.30, describing the schoolroom
"alphabet" of western India which began with "Om namah siddham" and
which  "is sometimes called by the Pandits Siddhamatrika."   This
information
seems to support two points already brought out: 1) That "Om namah siddham"
precedes the "alphabet" in many parts of India, 
and 2) that the application of the name Siddhamatrka to the North Indian
script of about the 8th to 10th centuries AD may be a misnomer--
apparently due to Al-Biruni, who referred to it as such, but perhaps
thinking the term referred to a particular script style rather than to a
graphic system or pattern.  Note that there has been some controversy as
to what the script is question should be called; see, e.g., Epigraphia
Indica 1, pp.75-6 and 36,  p.50.  Wujastyk is no doubt right in suspecting
a fundamental problem, namely that classical tradition generally did not
name and classify as such  what we see as different scripts.  Apparently
these were seem as trivial and inconsequential variations as
what was essentially the same systeml this, reflecting the unspoken
assumption that the sound, rather than the graph, is fundamental.  One can
understand how Al-Biruni, coming from an Islamic cultural background,
might not have understood this, despite his deep insights into Indian
culture. 

Richard Salomon
University of Washington
rsalomon at u.washington.edu