In secular context, Chinese were fascinated by the phonetics of Sanskrit language and the arrangement of its alphabet. In 291 A.D., Indian monk Moksala introduced 42 Siddham syllables to China.

This story is from November 13, 2005 The Buddhist mantra Wikipedia / Nov 13, 2005, 01:51 IST Follow us ...

In East Asia, a number of scripts such as Siddham, Ranjana and Uchen were historically used to write Sanskrit seed syllables, dharanis and mantras since the 4th or 5th century.