On 13 May 2022, at 23:05, Bill Mak <bill.m.mak@gmail.com> wrote:Dear colleagues,A colleague working on Yunnan Sanskrit inscription showed me an ink rubbing recently (15th century?) and I noted the impossible character āṃḥ (middle of the three bīja letters in the attached image). This character is well known in the Japanese esoteric tradition and there are some scanty references to it in works by Ōna and recently Rambelli and Dolce. When I asked Prof. Kojima Giryū who specialises in Siddham characters some years ago, I was given the impression that this might have been a Japanese innovation. So it is interesting to find this in the Yunnan corpus as well. I am curious if anyone knows of any discussion about this impossible character in Sanskrit literature, especially in non-Buddhist Indian sources.I also wonder if anyone knows anything about the “sthrīṃ” letter (first one from left). Someone in China collected a variety of specimens using this character, suggesting that it may have some significance in the Esoteric Buddhist tradition in Yunnan: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/FIkJktzIBIxXWf7swCL2QABest regards,Bill<Figure 2 peg.jpeg>Bill M. Mak, PhD--FellowJao Tsung-I Petite Ecole 饒宗頤學術館Tang Chi Ngong BuildingThe University of Hong KongPokfulam, Hong KongTel: +852-39174384Email: bmpmak@hku.hkResearch AssociateNeedham Research Institute8 Sylvester RoadCambridge, CB3 9AFUnited KingdomTel:+44-1223768229Email: bm574@cam.ac.ukcopies of my publications may be found at:
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