philosophical treatises), where mantras are considered as being, at least in
essence, pure forms of the absolute power ofva ̄cor of the supreme Conscious-
ness, powers used ritually and yogically too, but also and more essentially so as
to unite the consciousness of their user with the supreme divine Consciousness.
When one looks, as we shall (very briefly) do, at the various mantric practices
used from comparatively early times down to our days in Tantric or tantricized
rites or cults, one finds stressed and made use of, according to circumstance,
either the first or the second of these two concepts, but also sometimes both, as
for instance when a mantra is conceived of as an aspect of the absolute divine
Consciousness, or as a deity, yet is nevertheless used as a ritually manipulable
entity, or is imagined and visualized by an adept as circulating in the subtle
centers and canals of his body during a yogic mental-cum-bodily practice. The
dual nature of mantras and of their functions is underscored for instance in the
Spandaka ̄rika ̄, a S ́aiva Kashmirian text of the ninth century, which says that
though they are the very Absolute, mantras act like ordinary living beings, that
is, they perform all sorts of actions, but they also liberate their user, whose mind
is united with them and whom they eventually cause to fuse with the supreme
godhead. We may note here, too, that mantras are also considered as constitut-
ing a particular category of supernatural entities. This is the case notably in
S ́aiva texts, which consider that there are seven forms or levels of consciousness,
calledprama ̄tr., “knowers,” the highest of which is S ́iva, after whom come the
“Great lords of mantras” (Mantramahes ́vara), then the “Lords of mantras”
(Mantres ́vara), then the 70 million mantras, followed by three other levels down
to ordinary human beings. This is worth mentioning since it places mantras
(and their “Lords”) in a hierarchy of individual entities, rather than on a par-
ticular level, or as particular forms, of the Word – though, of course, these dif-
ferent mantric entities are deemed to exist on the three different levels ofva ̄c
known to the philosophy of grammar – for va ̄cis the ever-present substrate of
all that exists. We must also remember – nor did the Indians forget – that
mantras, whatever their nature, must be spoken or somehow uttered when used,
and that they therefore have also an empirical physical existence: mantras as
audible or inaudible sounds articulated by the organs of phonation are some-
times distinguished from mantras as powers.
All deities, supernatural entities, and so forth, have a mantra which is their
va ̄caka, “that which expresses” them, the deity or entity being “what is to be
expressed” (va ̄cya), a conception which (see above) definitely subordinates the
deity as an entity to its mantra. All deities have a mu ̄lamantra(ormu ̄lavidya ̄if
they are feminine), a basic or root mantra which, according to some sources, is
the substrate of all the mantras of that deity, for there are mantras corres-
ponding to the different forms, aspects, or constitutive elements of deities. Such
are, for instance, the five brahmamantrasof the five faces or mouths (vaktra) of
S ́iva, whence all S ́aiva Scriptures are deemed to have issued, or the an.gamantras,
the ancillary mantras of the “limbs” of S ́iva or of Vis.n.u. The “weapons” (a ̄yudha)
or attributes of the deities also have their mantras. All these mantras are used
to invoke the deities or entities concerned and/or to install them ritually in the
486 andré padoux