Seeds of Mantra: A Week of Mantra Research at Oxford

This past week, scholars from across Europe, Asia, and North America gathered at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford, for the Seeds of Mantra workshop, part of the MANTRAMS project convened by Dr. Finnian Gerety and Dr. Andrea Acri. Over five full days in residence at the college, participants worked through twenty-six hour-long presentations, each offering a “biography” of a single mantra traced across its texts, rituals, iconographies, and regions.

The breadth of material was remarkable. Presentations ranged from the Vedic oṃ and the Gāyatrī to Avestan mantras of ancient Iran; from oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ and Buddhist dhāraṇīs to mantras in East Asia and magical scripts in Thailand; and from the nāda of Jain mantras, Rāma mantras, and Śaiva seed syllables to such familiar formulae as namas te and svāhā.

On the final day, Yogic Studies founder Dr. Seth Powell presented on the “unuttered” mantra of yoga, so ’ham/haṃsa, the mantra said to repeat itself spontaneously with every breath.

The workshop also brought together several members of the Yogic Studies faculty: Dr. Finnian Gerety, Dr. James Mallinson, Dr. Philipp Maas, Dr. Lubomír Ondračka, and Dr. Keith Cantu.

The presentations will form the basis of Seeds of Mantra, a new sourcebook of mantras edited by Finnian Gerety and Andrea Acri. Further details on the volume will be shared here as it approaches publication.