This project is a case study within the FWF-funded Cluster of Excellence “Eurasian Transformations.” The study deals with the practice or principle of mantra repetition and its connection to the formation of religious and social identities. Correcting the widespread assumption that the continuous repetition of mantra is a timeless and universal practice, the study will argue that mantra repetition has a historical origin and must be studied against its cultural background. Preliminary research suggests that mantra repetition only came into use as a ritual practice in its own right in the final centuries BCE. By the time of the emergence of complex Tantric systems in the middle of the first millennium CE, the practice had already firmly established itself across the religious traditions of South Asia.

The aim of the study is to reconstruct the history of mantra repetition and its diverse modes and forms. It will deal with the historical roots of mantra repetition, its diversification in late antiquity and the Middle Ages, its connection to yoga and meditation, and with the theory that repetitive mantra meditation diffused from South Asia across Eurasia. The sources studied include in particular the Sanskrit Epics and their appendices, the Brahminical codes of conduct and law as well as ritual and yoga manuals, and the Pāśupata and other the early Śaiva texts. A special emphasis will be placed on the role that mantra repetition practices as well as counting aids used to keep track of repetitions (prayer beads etc.) played in the formation of religious and social identities.