Dear Colleagues
Thank you very much for all your helpful replies, which I have forwarded to Jackie Hirst.
Most suggestions have centred round the idea that the characters were an attempt to write the mahāvākya tat tvam asi, but there is also the possibility that it is ātmatattvam, which seems closer to the lettering we have, though perhaps less likely to be known by a non-specialist. If it is the former, it seems a very good message for the young man to have left to his family.
Again, many thanks.
Valerie J Roebuck
Manchester, UK
Sent from my iPad
On 12 Apr 2022, at 21:19, Valerie Roebuck via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
Dear indology list
Could you please advise Dr Jackie Hirst about the tattoo design shown in the attached picture?
She says: ‘It is a sketch, now in the possession of a father, that was found in the effects of his son, a young man who died tragically recently, and the family are keen to know what it means. He was interested in the Upaniṣads and the Bhagavad Gītā amongst other things and frequently sketched lotuses. Would anyone be able to shed more light on this as a particular (basic indication of a) yantra and/or on the particular (mainly nāgarī) characters which do not seem to make sense as a word/words - could they be (an attempt to indicate) specific individual seed mantras? or? If anyone has any further ideas, and how to convey them sensitively to the family, please reply to the list and/or to Jackie direct (jacqueline.hirst@manchester.ac.uk - Honorary Research Fellow South Asian Studies). With many thanks.'
Below is a Dropbox link to the design in question. It’s shared with the permission of the family.
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