The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1636 page)

N
mak
rtana
.

The constant repetition of the name of a god, which may lead to a trance or ecstatic state. More modestly, the repetition is a means of adoration and of identifying oneself with the god. As
n
majapa
(see
JAPA
), the repetition becomes a
mantra
, encapsulating the nature of the god.

 
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(Skt., ‘name’ + ‘form’).
1
In Hinduism, the way in which
m
y
, the power of all appearance to become apparent, achieves characteristic and identifiable properties.
2
In Buddhism, the description of the characteristic form of appearance, able to be named (even though there is no Self conferring persistent or subsistent identity). It thus summarizes the aggregation of the five
skandhas
(components of human appearance), with n
ma standing for the last four, and r
pa for the first. N
mar
pa is the fourth link in the chain of the conditioned arising of appearance (
paticcasamupp
da
).