Mantra

Contents: Introduction/Harvey P. Alper. 1. Mantra kavisasta: Speech as performative in the Rgveda/Ellison Banks Findly. 2. Vedic mantras/Frits Staal. 3. The mantra in Vedic and tantric ritual/Wade T. Wheelock. 4. Mantra in Ayurveda: A study of the use of magico-religious speech in ancient Indian medicine/Kenneth G. Zysk. 5. Are mantras speech acts? The Mimamsa point of view/John Taber. 6. The meaning and power of mantras in Bhartrhari's Vakyapadiya/Harold Coward. 7. Mantras in the Sivapurana/Ludo Rocher. 8. The use of mantra in yogic meditation: the testimony of the Pasupata/Gerhard Oberhammer. 9. The Pancaratra attitude to mantra/Sanjukta Gupta. 10. The cosmos as 'Siva's language-game: "Mantra" according to Ksemaraja's Sivasutravimarsini/Harvey P. Alper. Conclusion: Mantras--what are they?/Andre Padoux. Notes on the contributors. Abbreviations used in this volume. Bibliographical list.

"This book explicates the origin, nature, function, and significance of mantras within the bounds of the Hindu tradition. It explores the use of mantras in the Vedic age, in Saivism and Vaisnavism, in tantra, and in Ayurvedic medicine."