This book is a comprehensive review of its evolution in Japan from the 8th century onwards in the heavenly magnificence of the traditional hair brush and the monastic wooden pen. Eminent Indian teachers like Subhakarasimha, Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra wrote in this script. As such its aesthetics and sanctity have hallowed homes and monasteries in the Land of the Rising Sun. This is the first book to view Siddham calligraphy in the cultural interflow between India and Japan. The chinese word for calligraphy is shu fa, which means "dharma of writing".

Subjects of significance have been discussed: calligraphic styles, characteristics of Zen calligraphy, a million copies of a dharani written in Siddham script were printed in 762-770 (the first largest printing project of history), the calligram of Prajnakirti of Kashmir, the culmination of Siddham calligraphy in its spontaneity and rapture by Kobo Daishi and its conspicuous culmination as a blossoming of cultural aesthetics. Historic evolution of Siddham in East Asia was to become the divine script to sanctify imperial utensils during the Ming dynasty. The technology of calligraphy, such as the direction of the flow of ink, or taking ink for a second or third time, the slant of the brush, have been illustrated at length. In 1970 the very first words heard in a Shingon home was prabhata-mantra 'morning chant'. Mangala-stotra is the prime commencement of Shingon music: stanzas 4 and 12 are cited in a musical notation that goes back to the 8th century. In symbolic mandalas, theonyms of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and other deities are represented as bijaksaras or hieronyms. In this work, the Shuji-shu 'Bijaksara-samuccaya' of Chozen has been reproduced from the Japanese xylograph of 1670 AD. It has hieronyms of 351 Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and other deities, including some Hindu deities like Nanda Kuvara (Lord Krsna). The very rhythms of Being can be seen in the vibrant vigour of Siddham calligraphy.

Siddham Calligraphy of Sanskrit Hieronyms, Chandra Lokesh, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Hardcover, 290 pages, $75.00

Prof. Lokesh Chandra is currently the Director of the International Academy of Indian Culture which is a premier research institution for Asian cultures. He has been a Vice-President of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research. He is a well-known historian and a renowned scholar of Tibetan, Mongolian and Sino-Japanese Buddhism. He has also served as a member of the Indian Parliament. In 2006 he was recognized with India's Padma Bhushan award. He is the son of the world-renowned scholar of Oriental Studies and Linguistics Prof. Raghuvira. He was born in 1927, obtained his Master's degree in 1947 from the Punjab University at Lahore, and followed it with a Doctorate in Literature and Philosophy from the State University of Utrecht (Netherlands) in 1950. Starting with an understanding of the most ancient of India's spiritual expression enshrined in the Vedic tradition, he has moved on to the interlocution between India, Tibet, Mongolia, China, Korea, Japan, South East Asia, and the Indo-European languages. He has studied over twenty languages of the world. He has to his credit 613 works and text editions.