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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
The earliest account of the Śāradā alphabet with which I am acquainted is that contained in Leech's “Grammar of the Cashmeeree Language” in the JASB., vol. xiii, pp. 399 ff., 1844. Leech gives the forms only of the vowels and of the simple consonants, and does not deal with the combinations of consonants with vowels or with conjunct consonants. As the subject is one of some interest, I here give complete tables, showing not only the simple vowels and consonants, but also al; possible combinations of these, as they occur in this alphabet. The characters have all been written for me by my friend Mahāmahōpādhyāya Paṇḍit Mukunda Rāma Śāstrī of Śrīnagar, and may therefore be accepted with the fullest confidence. Two plates illustrating the alphabet were published by Burkhard in his edition of the Kaśmīr Śakuntalā (Vienna, 1884), but I think it will be found that the following tables are much more complete.
page 677 note 1 See JRAS. 1904, pp. 67 ff.Google Scholar
page 678 note 1 Cf. Bühler, , On the Origin of the Indian Brāhma Alphabet, p. 29 (Vienna, 1895)Google Scholar, and Hoernle, , on “The ‘Unknown Languages’ of Eastern Turkistān”Google Scholar, JRAS. 1911, p. 450. Bühler translates siddhaṁ, success.Google Scholar
page 678 note 2 A full account of the Mātṛkā-cakra will be found in Kṣēmarāja's Śivasūtravimarsiṇī, ii, 7Google Scholar, translated in the Indian Thought Series, No. II.
page 679 note 1 When I was in India its use in Northern India seems to have been confined to Eastern Bengal, where I studied it with the local Paṇḍits. In the rest of Bengal the Mugdhabōdha was in general use.
page 700 note 1 The Kula consists of Jīva (individual soul), Prakṛti (primal matter), space, time, ether, earth, water, fire, and air. The state of grace in which all these are conceived as one with Brahma or Śiva is Kulâcāra. On this basis is built up the Kaula or Kaulika cult, which differs from the Śākta cult in being more gross (besides details of ritual, etc. ). It is expounded in the Mahānirvāṇa-tantra, vii, 95 ff.Google Scholar, and elsewhere, ibid.; and a plain unvarnished account of its ritual, in all its nastiness, is given in Taruṇâcārya's Kula-rahasya. See also the account in Viśvakōśa, s.v. Kulâcāra. The speech of Bhairavânanda in Rājaśēkhara's Karpūra-man¯jarī (Konow, 's transl., p. 235)Google Scholar gives a good idea of the Kaula as others saw him.]
page 702 note 1 See the preceding footnote.
[page 702 note 2 Scil, the top horizontal line in the figure 
.]
[page 704 note 1 The following extract from Shrinivas Iyengar's translation of Śiva-sūtra-vimarśinī, in Indian Thought, vol. iii, p. 360Google Scholar, note, throws light on the subjects above dealt with. The spelling of Sanskrit words has been altered to agree with the system of transliteration used in this paper:—
“Parā Śakti is the mother of the universe. She may be conceived as Śiva-śakti, the consciousness of Īśvara. She is Consciousness, Pure, Universal, and Unlimited. Hence she is Independence (svacchanda); she is the vibratory energy that drives the cosmos. Being consciousness, she is symbolized* by Light; as the light of the sun makes the whole world visible, so she makes cognition desire and muscular action visible to the man that exercises these functions, i. e. she makes him aware of them. Man in his own real nature is Śiva, but attached to a body and mind. When these latter act, i.e. when cognition, etc., take place, she turns his attention on them and makes him identify himself with them. She is hence Mahā-Māyā, the great deceiver. She is also Mahā-Śakti, the driver of the cosmos; in this she is symbolized by Sound, the greatest manifestation of energy outside us. As Sound symbolizes this aspect of her, individual sounds are the bodies, physical manifestations of parts of her, viz. her attendant divinities, dēvīs, yōginīs, Śaktis, etc. By themselves, these sounds that constitute the mantras are merely, as it were, dead sound; they become vitalized when one acquires mantravīrya and makes the mantras charged with mystic power (Śakti). This is done by the “rousing” of Kuṇḍalinī. Kuṇḍalinī is Parā Śakti herself, or rather, a minified replica of her, residing in a man's body. In the case of ordinary men, Kuṇḍalinī is potential merely; she resides in the shape of a serpent coiled round his heart. By the word “heart” is not meant the physiological organ, but the centre of the body imagined as a hollow and filled with ākāśa. Ākāśa is sound conceived not as sensation within the brain, but as an objective entity. Such an ākāśa fills the inside of the body. In its centre, which is the heart, ‘the buddhi guha,’ there is a dot of Light. It is the Śiva, the representative of the supreme in the microcosm. As Śiva's Śakti surrounds Him in the cosmos, so in man this dot of Light (bindu) is surrounded by the Śakti in the shape of the sleeping serpent. ‘Churning’ with the bindu makes the coiled serpent straight.”]
* “Symbolized” is hardly adequate; “cosmically revealed, or embodied” would be nearer.—L. D. B.
page 705 note 1 See note on next page.
[page 706 note 1 Cf. Śiva-sūtra-vimarśinī, p. 61Google Scholar, and n. 39, ibid. The note says: “As the illumination (vidyōtana) of the lightning-flash, i.e. the latter is slightly superior, so the same Will, taking the form of the letter 
, is like the lightning-flash; the illumination of the latter, i.e. a slight superiority (of the former), is the 
, and the sound R is the seed of Fire, consisting of radiance.
Similarly, Will when resembling the lightning-flash is 
; and so to speak the illumination of the same, being slightly superior, is 
, and the sound L, being solid of nature, is the seed of the Earth.”]
page 708 note 1 [Namely, the Mantra, Pada, Varṇa, Bhuvana, Tattva, and Kalā Adhvans.]