Arapachana & Aksharamala

The arapachana syllabary is not an alphabet as such, but rather

a different sorting order for the Sanskrit syllabary that connects
the letters of the alphabet with particular meanings. As such it
replace the varnamala or aksharamala1 order—AAIIUU, etc. which
is a phonetic matrix based on an analysis of the generation of
the sounds in the human body.

Some scholars2 have postulated a Gandhari origin for the ara-

pachana. Gandhara was under Persian influence at this time
and the Persians shifted their writing from the cuneiform to
Karosthi, which derives form the Aramic family of scripts, but
was adapted for Indic languages.

The arapachana order was used particularly for the Kharosthi

script of early India (the immediate precursor of Brahmi).3
Kharoshthi, probably the earliest Indic script, which was used in
northwest India and spread to Central Asia from about the
fourth century BCE to the third century CE. The order of sylla-
bles starts with a ra pa ca na la da ba èa æa . . . That
order is unexplained and the script is called Arapacana after the
first five syllables. It possesses clearly Indic features: each sylla-
ble ends in a short –a and diacritic signs are added when that
short –a is replaced by another vowel. The order of vowels,
however, is not Indic but Aramaic: a e i o u and not a i u e o. 4
The illustration on the right is Kukai’s.
Dharani
A particular feature of the arapachana syllabary is that each of the letters is associated with a
word, which is further associated with a mnemonic verse. Thus the initial A is associated with
adya-anutpannatvad which is then defined by the verse “A is a door to the insight that all
dharmas are unproduced from the very beginning”. For further examples see the explanation of
the word arapachana below. Jan Nattier believes5 that just these verses are the earliest and
probably original dharani. Jayarava has tried to show that the progression of these verse can be
seen as a serial contemplation of some sort.
This contemplation is first described in the large Prajñaparamita Sutra. A more devolved version
appears in the Mahavairocana Tantra, which substitutes the Sanskrit consonants for the Gandhari
ones and leads one to imaginatively places the letters around the body while visualising oneself
as the Buddha. The Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha Tantra pares the whole thing down to just
meditating on the letter A. It is this latter meditation which became important in Shingon, and
other Vajrayana lineages as a fundamental contemplation on the unborn nature of all dharmas.
Vedas, Mimamsa

1 akshara (lit. unceasing) or letter is the parent concept for vowels & consonants in Sanskrit
2 especially Richard Salomon.
3 See: http://jayarava.blogspot.com/search/label/Arapacana

4 Frits Staal: The Sound Pattern of Sanskrit in Asia, p.7; in: Sanskrit Studies Central Journal. Journal of the Sanskrit

Studies Centre, Silpakorn University, 2 (2006) 193-2007.

5 A Few Good Men.
From the dawn of time the vedic tradition has regarded the sound of the Vedas as absolute
truth. One branch of Vedic exegesis, the Mimamsa school was particularly in these claims. Its
origins almost as old as the Vedas themselves, although the first systematic account was
Jaimini's Mimamsa Sutra probably written about 200 BCE6.

The Indian problem was that the words used in the Vedas were (more or less ) the same words
that ordinary people use in their banal conversations. So what is sacred about them? A contem-
porary school, the Sphotavada, worked along the lines that the words were special because of
the order that they were in - that it was the sentences of the Vedas that made them sacred. The
Mimamsa went in the other direction. The meaning of a sentence depends on the sum of the
parts that make it up. The smallest units are what are true or real (Skt. satya) and in the case of
Sanskrit this is the syllable. To quote Shabara, a mid-1st century BCE Mimamsa scholar:
"The word gauh (cow) is nothing more that the three phonemes which are found in it, namely g,
au, and h... It is also these very phonemes which cause the understanding of the meaning of the
word".
Contemporary scholar Guy Beck adds:
"The human process of comprehension is therein said to result from the mysterious accumula-
tion of individual letter potencies (shakti), each of which leaves an impression or trace (sam-
skara), which carries over onto the next letter or syllable".7
The early Upanishads contain several little treatises on the associations of syllables with esoteric
meaning - Chandogya 1.3.6 for instance. But Shabara has taken this to it's logical conclusion and
given significance to all of the syllables. This doesn't entirely solve the problem of logically es-
tablishing the revealed nature of the Vedas, but that need not distract us at present since that is
not our project.
Sutras & Tantras
Shabara wrote in the time immediately preceding, or even slightly over-lapping, the rise of the
mahayana. We know that Buddhists, in accordance with the general Indian approach, were apt
to incorporate any practice or idea which could be adapted to their use. It seems to me that in
this case the Vedic linguistic speculations were adopted, and developed. The apotheosis of this
occurs in the Mahavairocana Abhisambodhi Tantra where visualization of the Sanskrit alphabet is
recommended as a meditation practice.
The Lalitavistara Sutra also contains an alphabet which is equated with aspects of Perfect Wis-
dom.
The 25000 line Prajña-paramita-sutra in 25,000 lines elaborates this principle and explains how
each letter of the arapachana alphabet is associated with some point of the dharma, and all to-
gether are referred to as the syllable-doors (to the dharma). The 'power' of these syllables is
explained as follows:

"No letters or syllables are in conventional use except the foregoing. And why? For no word that is
not composed of them is used when anything is conventionally expressed, talked about, pointed out,
written about, made manifest or recited. Simply like space should one pursue all dharmas. This,
Subhuti, is called the entrance into the door of the Dharanis, the entrance into the exposition of the
letters A, etc. Any Bodhisattva who cognises this skill in the letters, etc. will not be tied down by
any sounds, he will accomplish everything through the sameness of all dharmas, and he will acquire
the skill in the cognition of sounds"

Twenty advantages will come to the Bodhisattva who masters this teaching, including: being
mindful, clever, intelligent, steadfast, not being assailed by doubts etc. This teaching is called,

6 about a century before the Lalitavistara Sutra

7 Beck, p.61.

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like the other teachings in the sutra, a great vehicle (i.e. mahayana) of the bodhisattva. Sameness
in this context is a synonym for shunyata or emptiness, i.e. all things are the same because they
are empty of any essential nature. The sutra, then, seems to be saying that the way to realize the
sameness of all sounds, is to contemplate the sounds of the letters as being linked to aspects of
the dharma.
The Arapachana Mantra

The mantra embodies the principle that each and every articulate vocal sound has significance.
The middle part of the arapacana mantra consists of the first five syllables of the alphabet that
give it its name.

OM ARAPACHANA DHIH in siddham script

With the prajñaparamita as a key the following meanings are connected to the middle five syl-
lables:
A is a door to the insight that all dharmas are unproduced from the very beginning (adya-
anutpannatvad);
RA is a door to the insight that all dharmas are without dirt (rajas);
PA is a door to the insight that all dharmas have been expounded in the ultimate sense (pa-
ramartha);
CA is a door to the insight that the decrease (cyavana) or rebirth of any dharma cannot be ap-
prehended, because all dharmas do not decrease, nor are they reborn;
NA is a door to the insight that the names [i.e. nāma]" of all dharmas have vanished; the essen-
tial nature behind names cannot be gained or lost.
In tantric iconography four of these five letters (omitting the A) are at the same time the bijas of
the four wisdom consorts of Arapachana Mañjushri, whose bija is DHIH.
Contemplation on the Arapachana
Jayarava’s contemplation form his blog runs as follows:
“The letter A (the short vowel sound in the English word cut), according to the text, is a door to
the insight that all dharmas are unproduced from the very beginning (adyanutpannatvat). I
take this to mean that even though we undeniable have experiences, no 'thing' - no ontologically
solid and lasting entity - arises as a result. So rather than thinking, for instance, there is "the in-
breath" and "the out-breath", we can reflect that there is no 'thing' called breath, there is just the
experience, the physical sensation of breathing. Instead of thinking in terms of "this feeling is in
my body", try to think in terms of "there is a physical feeling". Using verbs rather than nouns
helps this I think. Focus on the experience, that is the flow of sensations and perhaps mental
activity, rather than extrapolating from the experience to something solid.
RA is a door to the insight that all dharmas are without dirt (rajas). In this stage of the medita-
tion we reflect that although we have experiences which are either pleasant or unpleasant or
neutral, the feeling tone is not intrinsic to the experience. Something done once might be pleas-
ant, but done a dozen times may be unpleasant; one day it might thrill us, the next it might bore
us. Experience is just experience, and therefore it is "pure". We tend to be attracted to pleasant,
and repulsed by the unpleasant. We want to hold onto what attracts us, and to push away what
is unpleasant. It is these attempts at holding and pushing away which cause us to suffer, not the
bare experience of pleasant or unpleasant. Ultimately experience is just experience.

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PA is a door to the insight that all dharmas have been expounded in the ultimate sense (pa-
ramārtha). This aspect took me a little time to understand. What I think it means is that when
you reach out to determine what underlies experience, or what lies behind it, you can only have
another experience. So for instance although I feel embodied I might want to confirm that I have
a body. I might reach out my hand and touch myself - this is simply a touch sensation; or I
might look down at my body, and this is simply a sight sensation. It's as if we look behind the
mirror to see if we can find the object in the mirror, only to find another mirror. This is the true
nature of things, the ultimate (paramartha) explanation - we are immersed in experience, and
there is nothing beyond this.
CA is a door to the insight that the decrease (cyavana) or rebirth of any dharma cannot be ap-
prehended, because all dharmas do not decrease, nor are they reborn. Because we now know
that no 'thing' arises, then we should see that the corollary is that no 'thing' ever ceases. The best
we can say is there is experience. Once we start trying to talk about this experience, or that ex-
perience; my experience or your experience we are already dividing things up (vijñana) and
attributing thingness to them. If there is just experience, then what is it that arises, what that
dies?
NA is a door to the insight that the Names [i.e. nāma] of all dharmas have vanished; the essen-
tial nature behind names cannot be gained or lost. Since all we can be aware of is a ceaseless
flow of experience, changing from moment to moment, how could any name apply to anything.
By the time we have though of a name, the experience has passed and been replaced by another.
The very act of conceiving a name is simply a mental experience.”

More
Etienne Lamotte has a chapter in his History of Indian Buddhism titled The Shaka-Pahlavas and
Buddhism, on pages 486.. to 497. According to Lamotte the so called A Ra Pa Ca Na -alphabet is
derived from this Persian period in the development of Dharma. This alphabet is not an Indian
one, but Persian. The longer alphabet mantra, which is found in the Prajñaparamita and
Avatamsaka sutras, has a Z-sound, which is foreign to Indian languages, and it is marked with
Sya in the Indian letters.

Articles
Brough, John: The Arapacana syllabary in the old Lalita-vistara, Bulletin of the School of Oriental
and African Studies, vol. 40, no. 1 (1977)
Konow, Sten: The Arapacana alphabet and the Sakas, Acta Orientalia, XII (1934), pp. 13-24
Salomon, Richard: 1993: An Additional Note on Arapacana, JAOS 113: 275-6.
Salomon, Richard: New Evidence for a Gandhari Origin of the Arapacana Syllabary. Journal of the
American Oriental Society, Vol. 110, No. 2 (Apr - Jun, 1990), pp. 255-273
Beck, Guy L.: Sonic Theology. (Delhi : Motilal Banarsidass, 1995, 1993)
Skilling, Peter: An Arapacana Syllabary in the Bhadrakalpika-sutra, in JAOS 116.3, p.522
Thomas, F.W.: A Kharoshthi document and the Arapacana alphabet, Miscellanea Academica Berolin-
ensia, 1950, pp 194-207
Further References
Bhattacharya: Indian Buddhist Iconography, 120-121
Cleary, Thomas: Flower Garland Sutra (Gandhavyuha), p. 1440-1442
Conze, Edward: The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom: 21-22 (Conze's remarks), 160ff: the 42 syl-
lables in the sutra; 587: Buddha explains the 42 to Subhuti
Conze, Edward: Prajñaparamita literature, p.11n16
Conze, Selected Sayings ... (same as large sutra)
Daniels, Peter & Bright, William (eds.): The World's Writing Systems, p.377
English, Elisabeth: see under alternative mystic alphabet

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Huntington: Circle of Bliss, p.205
Lamotte, Etienne: History of Indian Buddhism, pp. 486-497
Wayman, Alex: Mañjushri-nama-samgiti, pp.30-31