Siddham (Sanskrit, Accomplished or perfected) is the name of a North Indian script used for writing Sanskrit. Descended from the Brahmi script that was used by Ashoka to write his famous pillar inscriptions promoting Buddhism. Siddham in turn gave rise to the Devanagari script.
The writing of mantras, and copying of Sutras using the Siddham script is still practiced in Shingon Buddhism, in Japan but has died out in other places. It was Kukai that introduced the Siddham script to Japan when he returned from studying Sanskrit, and vajrayana Buddhism in China, in 806.
see also: Writing_system, Alphabet
