________________
312
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1906.
the visarga. Nobody bat a Sanskrit grammarian would express the initial u by half the sign for va, and the phonetically very different, but etymologically allied, ia and sa by modifications of one sign, or derive initial o from u or i from e and !a and from da. And only a grammarian would invent the peculiar system of notation for medial vowels, which throughout marks the distinction between short and long ones, omits the short a, and expresses the long d by adding to the consonants the mark used for differentiating A from A, and the remaining medial vowels by combinations of the initial vowel signs, or of modifications thereof, with the consonants. This is so complicated and so highly artificial that only & Brahman's or pandit's ingenuity can have worked it out."
While thus praising the pandit for his ingenuity and thorough scholarship in Sanskrit grammar and phonetics in elaborating and arranging the Devanagari Alphabet, Prof. Bühler had to find fault with him for his pedantie formalism in wilfully changing the forms of the Semitic models, which the Professor presumed that he learnt from Indian merchants with Semitic people. Had the twenty-two Brahma letters, however, nearly resembled the Semitic models, the pandit would, in the view of the Professor, have been a well-behaved school-boy, worthy of still more laudatory words. But, as has already been seen, the letters look more like the Tantric hieroglyphics, of which the Professor was not at all aware, than the Semitic aliens in which he sought for their parentage. Had he consulted the literary records which the pandit has 'left behind him, he could have gathered the information that, instead of going for the Semitic models, the pandit merely went to the Tantric worshippers for his models. In return for the loan of models which the pandit received from the Tantric worshippers, he immensely extended the scope for the evolutionary growth of the Tantric literature. Had not the Devanagari Alphabet sprung up from the hieroglyphics or ideograms representing the god Siva and the goddess Sakti, it would not have carried throughout its letters so many names of gods or goddesses. Nor wonld the four kinds of identities which form the basis of Tantric mystery and speculation have originated. The identity of nada, the nine or twelve hieroglyphics described above, with (1) the body of the devotee, (2) with the body of the god or goddess, (3) with the alphabetio letters (panchasatkalah) or with the monosyllabic mantras, and the identity of the devotee with the god or goddess, are the chief causes of the endless speculations 42 of Tantric scholars. The identity of the goddess with the alphabet (bhita-lipi) is thus described in the Kâma-kala Chidvalli:
विविधा हिमभ्वमा सा सूक्ष्मा स्थूलाकृतिस्स्थिरा सूक्ष्मा.
नवनादमबी स्थूला नववर्गात्मा तु भूतलिप्यास्या. The goddess called Madhyama, middle, has two aspects. She is either of subtle or of visible form. The nine kinds of articulate sounds constitute her subtle and eternal form. The nine groups of the alphabetic letters make up her visible form.'
It may even be said that, if the Devanagart Alphabet had not resulted from the Tantric hieroglyphics, there would have been no Tantric literature at all. For the whole of Tantric literature treats of nothing but the recitation of monosyllabic mantras and the drawing of mystic figures, which, in their origin, must have been the pictures of the several poets of the human frame. The Vátuldgama says:
देवानां बीजनामानि वर्णास्तव प्रकल्पिताः तस्मावणानि चोक्तानि ज्ञात्वा मन्त्र समुद्धरेत् ।।
P. 35, Vatuldgama. The gods are called the seeds (bijas) of the world. Alphabetical letters are elaborated out of (the hieroglyphics representing) the seeds.'
Hence, it is necessary to have a thorough knowledge of the letters before going to make up the mantras. And तत्तदेवतानामभिधानाक्षरमेव तत्तावतानामङ्गं भवति.
P. 80, Com. Vatulágama. See pp. 184 and 222, Como. Saundaryalahari, M. O. L. Edition ; pp. 7, 54, 55, 56 and 78, Parfuasyaraharya, Bombay Edition.
