The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1481 page)

see
MAGI
.

 
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(Skt., ‘instrument of thought’; Chin.,
chou
; Jap.,
ju
; Korean
chu
). A verse, syllable, or series of syllables believed to be of divine origin, used in a ritual or meditative context in Indian religions. Mantras are used for the propitiation of the gods, the attainment of power (
siddha
), and identification with a deity or the absolute, which leads to liberation from
sa
s
ra
. First appearing in the
Vedic
Sa
hit
s
(2nd millennium BCE), mantras take on a central role in sectarian Hinduism, and Buddhist and Hindu
Tantrism
, especially in the Buddhist Mantray
na school (7th/8th cents. CE).
There are three kinds of mantra: linguistically meaningful, such as
nama
iv
ya
, ‘homage to
iva’; linguistically meaningless, the
b
ja
or ‘seed’ mantras, such as
o
a
hu
; and combined, such as the Buddhist
o