Dharani

Dharani (Skt. dhāraṇī; Tib. གཟུངས་, zung; Wyl. gzungs) — long mantras, which are placed inside sacred statues and stupas.

The difference between a Mantra and a Dharani

All Dharanis are Mantras, but not all Mantras are Dharanis. A Dharani is usually longer than a Mantra. A Dharani consists of a homage and/or invocation of the deity, followed by a request to act. Thus, Dharanis contain words such as bandha, bandha, bind, bind. These words show the request to act. In this case requesting the deity to bind x. Mantras on the other hand just consist of mantric syllables and possibly the name of the deity, without words of homage or request to act.

Structure of Dharanis

• teyata (Skt. tadyathā; Eng. it is like this) indicates the main mantra. What is written before teyata is the homage and what follows the teyata is the main Mantra or Dharani. In India traditionally the homage was recited only once and the main Mantra or Dharani would be repeated many times. However, in Tibet this was neglected and the whole is considered as a Mantra or Dharani and recited repeatedly.
• om and hung. When writing om and hum quickly in Sanskrit manuscripts they only write the anusvara (Skt. anusvāra), that is ṃ. However, both syllables in its full form take the anunāsika (Skt. anunāsika), that is the half-moon. The anunasika causes a nasalization of the syllable. Thus, when the Tibetan say hung, they are quite close to the actual sound. Regarding om, although it also takes the anunasika it is not pronounced as strong. Thus, om stays om in terms of pronunciation. To indicate the anunasika it is good write the syllables as oṁ and hūṁ rather than oṃ and hūṃ.
• om is an old vedic syllable of address and is usually followed by a vocative, that is the name or names of the deity in the vocative cave.
• soha (Skt. svāhā), coming from su ahā, well said, goes with the dative(s) in the Mantra or Dharani.
• Many Mantras and Dharanis follow a Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar. Particularly a peculiar construction happens, when it is a Dharani. In this case since the Dharani is feminine, although the main deity addressed may be male, the grammar will follow the feminine stem.

Further Reading

In Tibetan

• Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thayé, rten la nang gzhug 'bul ba'i lag len lugs srol kun gsal dri bral nor bu chu shel gyi me long

In English

• Janet Gyatso, 'Letter Magic: A Peircean Perspective on the Semiotics of Rdo Grub-chen's Dhāraṇī Memory' in J. Gyatso, In the Mirror of Memory: Reflections on Mindfulness and Remembrance in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, SUNY, 1992
• Yael Bentor, 'On the Indian Origins of the Tibetan Practice of Depositing Relics and Dhāraṇīs in Stūpas and Images', Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 115, No. 2, pp. 248-261

Internal Links

• Five classes of great dharanis