Explaining Mantras: Ritual, Rhetoric, and the Dream of a Natural Language in Hindu Tantra (Religion in History, Society and Culture) - Hardcover

Yelle, Robert A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0415966353 ISBN 13: 9780415966351

Publisher: Routledge, 2003

Synopsis

Explaining Mantras explores the intersection of poetry and magic in the mantras or verbal formulas of Hindu Tantra. The author reveals how mantras work in light of both the esoteric tradition of Tantra and a general semiotic theory of ritual. Mantras mimic the act of sexual reproduction and the cosmic cycle of creation and destruction. A mantra that imitates creation is believed to be more creative and effective in producing a real-world result. Drawing from linguistics, semiotics, anthropology, and philosophy, as well as the history of religions, the author argues that mantras and other ritual discourses use rhetorical devices, including imitation, to construct the persuasive illusion of a natural language, one with a direct and immediate connection to reality. This vital relation between poetry and ritual has been neglected in many current theories of religion. Explaining Mantras combines the study of ancient Tantric rituals with the latest theories in the human sciences, and will be of interest to a broad range of readers.

About this title

About the Author

Robert A. Yelle has a Ph.D. in the History of Religions from the University of Chicago. He spent a year as a Fulbright-Hays Fellow researching Tantric ritual in Calcutta, India, and has published articles in Numen, Religion, and the Journal of the American Academy ofReligion.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0415966353
• ISBN 13: 9780415966351
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 190