Embedded Files
Illustration of the Lanydza alphabet from a 17th C. Handbook of Tibetan Iconometry.
Lanydza (ལཉྫ་) is the name Tibetans usually use for the Rañjanā script an Indic akṣara writing system which first appeared during the time of the Pala dynasty in what is now northern India and Nepal. It was used for writing important (mostly Buddhist) Sanskrit scriptures, prayers, mantra and dhāraṇī. In Himalayan and Tibetan Buddhism it continues to be used for these purposes right up to the present time. Lanydza script is also found adorning temple architecture, embossed on prayer wheels, used to write mantras and dhāraṇī which are inserted into Buddha images and stupas at the time of their consecration, and painted in Buddhist mandala (most notably the Kālacakra mandala). In the creative visualization practices of Vajrayāna Buddhism the "seed syllables" or bīja of meditational deities are often visualized in the form of Lanydza script letters. Buddhist texts, translated from Sanskrit to Tibetan almost a millennium ago, often preserve their original Sanskrit title written or printed on the title page in Lanydza script.
In Tibetan books where we find Sanskrit text written in Lanydza script, there is usually a transcription in Tibetan script written directly below, followed by the Tibetan translation of the text on the third line:
Lanydza is not used by Tibetans for writing their own language ~ the alphabet of the Lanydza / Rañjanā script lacks several consonants necessary for writing Tibetan including the letters ཞ (zha), ཟ (za) and འ ('a).
Name
Name
In Tibetan sources the script name ལཉྫ་ Lanydza is sometimes written as Lanytsha ལཉྪ - though the authoritative Great Tibetan-Chinese Dictionary (བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ།) gives preference to the first spelling. The name ལཉྫ་ Lanydza is not a native Tibetan name. Some people have speculated that it is a Tibetan corruption or derivative of Rañjanā - but this makes no sense as Tibetan scholars (especially those who used this script) were familiar enough with Sanskrit, and the name རཛྙ་ (Rañjanā) can easily and accurately be written in the Tibetan script. ལཉྫ་ is the way the Sanskrit लञ्ज (lañja) would normally be transcribed in Tibetan and the Monier-Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary (p. 928) gives 'foot or tail' as the primary definition of the word लञ्ज / lañja; so it may be that the name originally simply meant script with a tail or tailed script.
Uses
How to write the Lanydza script
Buddhist Mantras in Lanydza script:
Mantras of the Twenty-one Taras (Longchen Nyingthig tradition)
Notes:
External Links & Resources:
External Links & Resources:
Indian scripts in Tibet ~ reproduced by Lokesh Chandra from the collection of Prof. Raghuvira.
Lantsha, Vartu and other Indian scripts in Tibet - Georg Fischer
Lanydza script - Wikipedia
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse