DESCRIPTION

The 'Arapacana Syllabary' is a Buddhist magical alphabet traditionally consisting of 42 syllables. It loosely corresponds to the modern Sanskrit alphabet, however, it is traditionally written in a particular script known as Siddham, rather than Devanagari, and it has a unique ordering that begins with the five syllables "A - Ra - Pa -Ca - Na."

A version of the Arapacana syllabary can be found in the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra (the Prajñāpāramitā in 25,000 verses), in which the Buddha weaves the syllables into a kind of mnemonic poem, similar to the English learning technique: 'A is for Apple, B is for Banana, etc.,' This poem uses essential concepts from the Prajñāpāramita philosophical lexicon to teach each 'Letter of Law.'

There are three Chinese translations of the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra, containing the Arapacana syllabary. There is also a version in the Yogavajraśekhara Sutra 瑜伽金剛頂經 translated by Amoghavajra as the ‘Mother of all Syllables’ chapter 釋字母品.

TRANSLATIONS

CHINESE

ENGLISH

From the Sanskrit Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramita Sutra (Conze p. 200 of pdf)

Chapter on the Mother-letters and Interpretations of the Yoga Vajraśekhara Sūtra (Yuga-kongocho-kyo Shakujimo-bon, 瑜伽金剛頂経釈字母品