icon, yantra, or whatever support they are to be worshipped on or made use
of for some purpose. (This empowerment of the icon by mantras is absolutely
necessary: without it the icon would be void of any divine element and there-
fore useless.) Deities to be worshipped have also a mu ̄rtimantraormu ̄rtividya ̄
used to invoke or call forth their visible form (their mu ̄rti). There are also
kala ̄mantras, used to manifest the different parts (kala ̄) constitutive of the deity,
which is thus conceived as made up of, ritually constructed with, mantras. The
latter are therefore ontologically prior and superior to the former: in many
respects tantric pantheons are systems or configurations of mantras rather than
of deities. Since there are mantras for, or corresponding to, or included among
the constitutive elements or divisions of the cosmos described in tantric texts –
thetattvas,kala ̄s,an.d.as,bhuvanas,adhvans, and even mantras – and since
mantras are used to evoke these entities, the very cosmos can be conceived of
as basically made up of mantras. Indeed, in the cosmogony of the Ahir-
budhnyasam.hita ̄ of the Pa ̄ñcara ̄tra, the condition the god Vis.n.u assumes before
creating the cosmos through a phonetic process is described as “mantric”
(mantramaya). In this sam.hita ̄ as well as in S ́aiva texts, the manifestation of the
cosmos results from the apparition in the supreme godhead of the 49/50
phonemes of the Sanskrit alphabet,^11 fromAtoKS.A: all these phonemes can be
considered as so many mantras (“seed-mantras,” bı ̄jamantras, rather, since they
are made by adding to each individual letter the bindu m., from AM. toKS.AM.).
But the whole alphabet can also be considered as an alphabetic form of the god
Bhairava: “Bhairava of the totality of sound,” S ́abdara ̄s ́ibhairava, who is thus
considered, and can be made use of, as a mantra of 50 syllables. Similarly, a dif-
ferent order of the alphabet (going from NatoPha), called Ma ̄linı ̄, is both a
goddess and a mantra. In such cases it is sometimes difficult to distinguish
mantra from deity, for a deity may be considered as made up of, as being, a
mantra, or as made up of letters of the alphabet – these are “mantra-deities”
(mantradevata ̄), “alphabet-deities” (varnadevata ̄), or “letter-goddesses” (lipidevı ̄)
such as Sarasvatı ̄ in her form as Va ̄gı ̄s ́ı ̄.^12 The three supreme goddesses of the
S ́aiva system of the Trika, Para ̄, Apara ̄, and Para ̄para ̄, are mantradevata ̄s, being
made up respectively ofSAUH., of a mantra of 38 syllables, and of the three bı ̄jas
HRI ̄H.HU ̄M.PHAT..
Like Hindu deities – only more so – mantras are innumerable. They are tra-
ditionally said to number 70 million – one of those large numbers in which India
delights. But nobody has ever counted them, in spite of the many lists that exist.
The fact that mantras are regarded as secret formulas, powerful spells that can
be used for any purpose, good or bad, may explain the absence from all tradi-
tions of any complete catalog. Moreover, in the existing lists, and more gener-
ally in nearly all Tantric texts, mantras are usually not quoted in full. They are
referred to instead by their names – S ́rı ̄vidya ̄, for instance, or Hr.dayabı ̄ja, for
SAUH., Pin.d.ana ̄tha or Ma ̄tr.sadbha ̄va, for KHPHREM., etc. –, or by the name of
their devata ̄, or by their own names if they are mantradevata ̄s, like Nava ̄tman,
or else by the number of their syllables, such as pañcadas ́a ̄ks.aramantrafor the
S ́rı ̄vidya ̄ of 15 syllables, etc.
mantra 487