History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.208

v7.c92.208

Reasons of space preclude further illustrations of the use of Tāntrik mantras by medieval digests on Dharmaśāstra. One matter of contrast between Vedic mantras and some Tāntrik mantras may be noticed. A Vedic mantra, according to Jaimini (I. 2. 32), was significant, but the Tantras go so far as to teach the repetition of mantras that have no meaning or that contain the letters of the mantra in reversed form. For example, the Kālivilāsatantra (XXII. 21) says that the reverse of the three letters of the mantra 'om Durge', as 'rgedu om' yields all desires ('rgedu om tryakṣaram mantram sarvakāmaphalapradam)'. The Sad-dharmapuṇḍarīka¹⁷⁹⁸ (a standard work of Mahāyāna Buddhism) chap. 21 (text edited by Kern and Bunyiu Nanjio, 1912 and translated in S. B. E. vol. XXI. pp 370-375) contains spells (called Dhāraṇīpadāni). It should not be supposed that spells were peculiar to Hindus or Buddhists. Many ancient peoples believed that words and letters have magic power and that belief led on to another belief that it did not matter even if the letters and words had no sense. E. J. Thomas in 'History of Buddhist thought' (reprint of 1953) states that spells similar to Hindu and Buddhist types exist in old English, Old High German and Keltic (p. 186).