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	==Introduction==		==Introduction==
	Mlecchita Vikalpa is the art of secret writing and secret communications. In ''[[The Codebreakers]]'', a 1967 book by [[David Kahn (writer)\|David Kahn]] about the history of [[cryptography]], the reference to Mlecchita Vikalpa in Kamasutra is cited as proof of the prevalence of cryptographic methods in [[ancient India]]. Though Kamasutra does not have details of the methods by which people of that time practiced this particular form of art, later commentators of Kamasutra have described several methods. For example, [[Yasodhara]] in his [[Jayamangala]] commentary on Kamasutra<ref name=Kahn>{{cite book\|last1=David Kahn\|title=The Codebreakers\|date=December 1996\|publisher=Simon and Schuster\|isbn=9781439103555\|page=74\|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SEH_rHkgaogC&q=chinese+cryptography+history&pg=PA1000\|accessdate=25 November 2015}}</ref> gives descriptions of methods known by the names ''Kautilya'' and ''Muladeviya''. The ciphers described in the Jayamangala commentary are [[substitution cipher]]s: in Kautiliyam the letter substitutions are based on phonetic relations, and Muladeviya is a simplified version of Kautiliyam. There are also references to other methods for secret communications like Gudhayojya, Gudhapada and Gudhavarna. Some modern writers on cryptography have christened the ciphers alluded to in the Kamasutra as ''Kamasutra cipher'' or ''Vatsyayana cipher''.<ref>{{cite web\|last1=Simon Singh\|title=The Black Chamber\|url=http://www.simonsingh.net/The_Black_Chamber/kamasutra.html\|accessdate=4 December 2015}}</ref>		Mlecchita Vikalpa is the art of secret writing and secret communications. In ''[[The Codebreakers]]'', a 1967 book by [[David Kahn (writer)\|David Kahn]] about the history of [[cryptography]], the reference to Mlecchita Vikalpa in Kamasutra is cited as proof of the prevalence of cryptographic methods in [[ancient India]]. Though Kamasutra does not have details of the methods by which people of that time practiced this particular form of art, later commentators of Kamasutra have described several methods. For example, Yasodhara in his Jayamangala commentary on Kamasutra<ref name=Kahn>{{cite book\|last1=David Kahn\|title=The Codebreakers\|date=December 1996\|publisher=Simon and Schuster\|isbn=9781439103555\|page=74\|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SEH_rHkgaogC&q=chinese+cryptography+history&pg=PA1000\|accessdate=25 November 2015}}</ref> gives descriptions of methods known by the names ''Kautilya'' and ''Muladeviya''. The ciphers described in the Jayamangala commentary are [[substitution cipher]]s: in Kautiliyam the letter substitutions are based on phonetic relations, and Muladeviya is a simplified version of Kautiliyam. There are also references to other methods for secret communications like Gudhayojya, Gudhapada and Gudhavarna. Some modern writers on cryptography have christened the ciphers alluded to in the Kamasutra as ''Kamasutra cipher'' or ''Vatsyayana cipher''.<ref>{{cite web\|last1=Simon Singh\|title=The Black Chamber\|url=http://www.simonsingh.net/The_Black_Chamber/kamasutra.html\|accessdate=4 December 2015}}</ref>

	The exact date of the composition of Kamasutra has not been fixed. It is supposed that Vatsyayana must have lived between the first and sixth centuries AD. However, the date of the Jayamangla commentary has been fixed as between the tenth and thirteenth centuries CE.<ref name="translation"/>		The exact date of the composition of Kamasutra has not been fixed. It is supposed that Vatsyayana must have lived between the first and sixth centuries AD. However, the date of the Jayamangla commentary has been fixed as between the tenth and thirteenth centuries CE.<ref name="translation"/>

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{{short description|Cryptography in the Indian classic treatise Kamasutra}}
'''Mlecchita Vikalpa''' is one of the 64 arts listed in [[Vatsyayana]]'s [[Kamasutra]]. The list appears in Chapter 3 of Part I of Kamasutra and Mlecchita Vikalpa appears as the 44th item in the list. The term Mlecchita Vikalapa has been translated into English as "the art of understanding writing in cypher, and the writing of words in a peculiar way".<ref name="translation">{{cite book|last1=Translators: Richard Burton, Bhagavanlal Indrajit, Shivaram Parashuram Bhide|title=The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana (Translated From The Sanscrit In Seven Parts With Preface,Introduction and Concluding Remarks)|date=January 18, 2009|publisher=The Project Gutenberg|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/27827/27827-h/27827-h.htm|accessdate=3 December 2015}}</ref>

==Introduction==
Mlecchita Vikalpa is the art of secret writing and secret communications. In ''[[The Codebreakers]]'', a 1967 book by [[David Kahn (writer)|David Kahn]] about the history of [[cryptography]], the reference to Mlecchita Vikalpa in Kamasutra is cited as proof of the prevalence of cryptographic methods in [[ancient India]]. Though Kamasutra does not have details of the methods by which people of that time practiced this particular form of art, later commentators of Kamasutra have described several methods. For example, [[Yasodhara]] in his [[Jayamangala]] commentary on Kamasutra<ref name=Kahn>{{cite book|last1=David Kahn|title=The Codebreakers|date=December 1996|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=9781439103555|page=74|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SEH_rHkgaogC&q=chinese+cryptography+history&pg=PA1000|accessdate=25 November 2015}}</ref> gives descriptions of methods known by the names ''Kautilya'' and ''Muladeviya''. The ciphers described in the Jayamangala commentary are [[substitution cipher]]s: in Kautiliyam the letter substitutions are based on phonetic relations, and Muladeviya is a simplified version of Kautiliyam. There are also references to other methods for secret communications like Gudhayojya, Gudhapada and Gudhavarna. Some modern writers on cryptography have christened the ciphers alluded to in the Kamasutra as ''Kamasutra cipher'' or ''Vatsyayana cipher''.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Simon Singh|title=The Black Chamber|url=http://www.simonsingh.net/The_Black_Chamber/kamasutra.html|accessdate=4 December 2015}}</ref>

The exact date of the composition of Kamasutra has not been fixed. It is supposed that Vatsyayana must have lived between the first and sixth centuries AD. However, the date of the Jayamangla commentary has been fixed as between the tenth and thirteenth centuries CE.<ref name="translation"/>

==Kautiliya==
This is a Mlecchita named after [[Kautilya]], the author of the ancient Indian political treatise, the [[Arthashastra]]. In this system, the short and long vowels, the [[anusvara]] and the spirants are interchanged for the consonants and the [[conjunct consonant]]s. The following table shows the substitutions used in the Kautiliyam cipher. The characters not listed in the table are left unchanged.<ref name=FineArts>{{cite book|last1=Anil Baran Ganguly|title=Fine Arts of Ancient India|date=1979|publisher=Abhinav Publications|pages=1678–170|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dw7NhcImr1oC&q=muladeviya&pg=PA169|accessdate=4 December 2015}}</ref>

::{| class="wikitable"
|-
|a || ā || i || ī || u || ū || ṛ || ṝ || ḷ || ḹ|| e || ai || o || au || ṃ|| ḩ || ñ|| ś || ṣ || s || i || r || l || u
|-
| kh || g || gh ||ṅ || ch || j || jh || ñ || ṭh || ḍ || ḍh || ṇ || th || d || dh || n || ph || b || bh || m || y || r || l || v
|}

There is a simplified form of this scheme known by the name ''Durbodha''.

==Muladeviya==
Another form of secret writing mentioned in Yasodhara's commentary on Kamasutra is known by the name ''Muladeviya''. This existed both in the spoken form and in the written form. In the written form it is called ''Gudhalekhya''. This form of secret communications were used by kings' spies as well as traders in various geographical locations in India. Also this form of secret communications has been popular among thieves and robbers.<ref name="FineArts"/> However, there were variations in the actual scheme across the various geographical areas. For example, in the erstwhile [[Travancore]] Kingdom, spread over a part of present-day [[Kerala State]] in India, it was practiced under the name [[Mulabhadra]] with some changes from the schemes described by Yashodhara.

The cipher alphabet of Muladeviya consists of the reciprocal one specified in the table below.<ref name="FineArts"/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Friedrich L Brauer|title=Decrypted Secrets: Methods and Maxims of Cryptology|date=2007|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-540-24502-5|pages=47}}</ref>

::{| class="wikitable"
|-
| a || kh || gh || c || t || ñ || n || r || l || y
|-
| k || g || ṅ || ṭ || p || ṇ || m || ṣ || s || ś
|}

The great Indian epic [[Mahabharata]] contains an incident involving the use of this type of secret talking.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Anil Baran Ganguly|title=Fine Arts in Ancient India|date=1979|publisher=Abhinav Publications|page=169|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dw7NhcImr1oC&q=muladeviya&pg=PA169|accessdate=26 November 2015}}</ref> [[Duryodhana]] was planning to burn [[Pandavas]] alive and had made arrangements to send Pandavas to [[Varanavata]]. [[Vidura]] resorted to secret talk to warn [[Yudhishthira]] about the dangers in front of everybody present. Only Yudhishthira could understand the secret message. None others even suspected that it was a warning.

==Gudhayojya==
This is an elementary and trivial method for obscuring the true content of spoken messages and it is popular as a [[language game]] among children. The idea is to add some unnecessary letters chosen randomly to the beginning or to the end of every word in a sentence. For example, to obscure the sentence "will visit you tonight" one may add the letters "dis" at the beginning of every word and convey the message as "diswill disvisit disyou distonight" the real content of which may not be intelligible to the uninitiated if pronounced rapidly.<ref name="FineArts"/>

==See also==
*[[Mulabhadra]]
*[[Pig Latin]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Cryptography navbox | classical}}

[[Category:Cryptography]]
[[Category:History of cryptography]]
[[Category:Military communications]]
[[Category:Classical ciphers]]
[[Category:Kamashastra]]

Mlecchita vikalpa - Revision history

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