Techniques of Secret Writing in India

During war times and military expeditions, army personnel use coded language so that the enemies wouldn‘t understand the message. But in the ancient world this secret language was used for different purposes. According to encyclopaedias it was used in Egypt 5000 years ago followed by Greece. Though the Vedic seers sang that they delight speaking in secret language we are not able to give concrete examples. Scholars have acknowledged the symbolism in the Vedas, but not the encrypted language.

When Vyasa requested Lord Ganesh to write the longest epic in the world, Lord Ganesh agreed to do it on a condition. He will have to write it without stopping. If it all Vyasa couldn’t compose the couplets that fast, he has to find another person to do the job. Clever Vyasa agreed to do it, but put one condition to Lord Ganesh that he should write only when he understood what he wrote. There started the puzzles, encrypted language etc. Once again we have no proof for the puzzles or encrypted language from Mahabharata, though this story is popular. Ancient Hindus followed a system called Katapayadi system to remember the words and numbers easily. This system assigned letters to numerals. No 18= JaYa (old name of Mahabharata).

Personally I think the coded language evolved in India and I will attribute the above facts as a proof for this.

But Dr.Simon Sing, a London based author, gives concrete example of encrypted language in his book ‘The Code Book’. It is very interesting that we have the first example in the sex manual- Kama Sutra!

64 Arts for Women

Following is an excerpt from his book:

“ One of the earliest descriptions of encryption by substitution appears in the Kama Sutra, a text written in the fourth century AD by the Brahmin scholar Vatsyayana, but based on manuscripts dating back to fourth century BC. The Kama sutra recommends that women should study 64 arts, such as cooking dressing, massage and preparation of perfumes. The list also includes some less obvious arts, namely conjuring, chess, book binding and carpentry. Number 45 on the list is Mlechita-vikalpa, the art of secret writing, advocated in order to help women conceal the details of their liaisons. One of the recommended techniques is to pair letters of the alphabet at random, then substitute each letter in the original message with its partner. If we apply the principle to the Roman alphabet, we could pair letters as follows:

A D H I K M O R S U W Y Z

V X B G J C Q L N E F P T

Then, instead of MEET AT MIDNIGHT, the sender would write CU UZ VZ CGXSGIBZ. This form of secret writing is called a substitution cipher because each letter in the plaintext is substituted for a different letter, thus acting in a complimentary way to the transposition of cipher. In transposition each letter retains its identity but changes its position, where as in substitution each letter change its identity but retains its position.

The first documented use of substitution cipher for military purposes appears in Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars. Caesar describes how he sent a message to Cicero, who was besieged and on the verge of surrendering”.

Lot of interesting anecdotes are in the book. Simon Sing’s another popular book is The Fermat’s Last theorem.

Please read my earlier posts

Hindu’s Magic Numbers 18, 108, 1008 Love Letters from Ancient India பார்ப்பனிக்கு வடமொழிச் சீட்டு