Source: TW
A note on mantras. There was an offline conversation with an acquaintance regarding whether mantras should be kept secret or be open sourced for anyone to open and study. While, obviously the outcome was a stalemate, one thing became clear - It’s actually hard to define a mantra. While an H has an intuitive grasp of what it is, describing it is another story. I was reflecting on this briefly.
One can go via the etymological route - *men -PIE to think. However, Avestan has the cognate manthra (mãthra actually with ã being a nasal vowel). Looking at how manthra is understood can actually throw good light on what a mantra is on our side. The implications and all the nuances of the word actually goes at least back to IIr.
Let’s start with Airyama-ishyô. It comes in ardibehisht yacht, whose efficacy was eloquently vouched by a Parsi acquaintance long back. He narrated an incident where his sickness due to nazar was cured by a ritual where this manthra is recited and peacock feather is stroked over his body. The recovery was remarkable. This yasht has the interesting passage: One may heal with Holiness, one may heal with the Law, one may heal with the knife, one may heal with herbs, one may heal with the Holy Word: amongst all remedies this one is the healing one that heals with the Holy Word; this one it is that will best drive away sickness from the body of the faithful: for this one is the best-healing of all remedies. “Manthro…baeshazyo…baeshazanām baeshazyotemo”. You can guess the Sanskrit cognates - mantra, bhaiShajya, bhaiShajyatama..
This clearly points to the mantra having healing property - AV and certain yajur formulas abound with examples. Brahma priest in yajña is supposed to be bhiShak - physician of the sacrifice. He corrects faults in a sacrifice and heals the wounded sacrifice. Now, bhaiShajya gaNa is one of the set of AV mantras (mantras are grouped based on applications- salilagaNa, sharmavarma gaNa ityAdi). Atharvans possessing the healing mantras most probably gave rise to the claim over the office of brahma for bhrgv-angiro-vid. The doctor to men as well as to the sacrifice. The airyama formula is quite interesting - something not out of place in atharvaveda -
Sickness fled away [before it], Death fled away;
the Daêva fled away, the Daêva’s counter-work fled away;
the unholy Ashemaogha fled away, the oppressor of men fled away. The brood of the Snake fled away; the brood of the Wolf fled away;
the brood of the Two-legged, 4 fled away.
Pride fled away; Scorn fled away;
Hot Fever fled away; Slander fled away;
Discord fled away; the Evil Eye fled away.
If this recalls “pratyuShTam rakshaH pratyuShTA arAtayaH” from taittiriya or countless AV formulas, there’s a good reason. The relationship between healing and atharvaveda is already noted by Charaka. DArila, commentator of AV’s Kaushika sutra bluntly states that ailments of body is treated by Ayurveda when it’s caused by ingesting spoilt food. Those caused by supernatural means are cured by atharvaveda.
Still curative aspect of mantra is just one tiny aspect. Another interesting motif is that the mantra itself is the deity’s body. This motif is found all the way down to tantra, taking sophisticated forms. In this context, one can look at Sraosha’s afrinagan: sraoshahe ashyehe taxmahe tanu-manthrahe darshi-draosh âhûiryehe. The tanu-manthrahe interesting part here - tanu is same as Sanskrit- body. Worship is offered to Sraosha, bearer of club, companion of ashi, HAVING MANTHRA for BODY.