"MANTRAMS (Mantras in Religion, Media, and Society in Global Southern Asia) investigates one of the most widespread yet understudied religious phenomena in the world: mantras. Used by more than a billion people across Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, and other religious traditions, mantras play a central role in ritual, prayer, meditation, healing, and everyday religious life. Despite their global significance, mantras have rarely been studied in their own right. Existing scholarship has often focused on elite textual traditions, particularly Sanskrit sources, while overlooking the diverse material, sonic, visual, embodied, and digital forms through which mantras are transmitted, experienced, and transformed.
The project seeks to produce the first comprehensive global history and anthropology of mantras, grounded in the regions and traditions in which they originated and continue to flourish. Bringing together scholars from anthropology, religious studies, philology, history, art history, and digital humanities, MANTRAMS investigates how mantras circulate across languages, media, communities, and historical periods. Particular attention is given to their multisensory dimensions and their manifestations in manuscripts, inscriptions, ritual performances, devotional practices, healing traditions, material objects, visual culture, and digital environments.
Organized around three interconnected task forces and three transversal themes (media, senses, and power), the project examines how mantras function as technologies of communication, efficacy, authority, embodiment, and social transformation. In addition to generating new scholarly knowledge, MANTRAMS is developing innovative digital infrastructures, including the OMnibus platform, as well as audiovisual archives and other resources designed to support the long term documentation, preservation, and dissemination of mantra traditions.
By raising awareness of the historical depth, cultural diversity, and contemporary relevance of mantra practices, the project contributes to broader discussions on religion, media, cultural heritage, and social life in both South Asia and global contexts. Through the integration of humanities and social science approaches, MANTRAMS offers new perspectives on how religious traditions are transmitted, experienced, and transformed across time and space."
