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A mantra is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or set of words in Sanskrit, Pali, and other languages that its practitioners believe to have magical, spiritual, or religious qualities (Sanskrit, romanized: mantra, /mntr/; Pali: manta). Some mantras have a literal meaning and a syntactic structure, while others do not.

The first mantras were written in Indian Vedic Sanskrit. The word “Aum” (sometimes spelled “Om”), which is thought to be the first sound to originate on earth, is used as a mantra in its most basic form. When the aum sound is made, a reverberation occurs in the body that promotes calmness in the body and mind. In more complex forms, mantras are musical expressions that express spiritual concepts like the human yearning for reality, light, immortality, serenity, love, wisdom, and action. Some mantras have spiritual significance and raise the spirit without having any literal meaning.

According to the school and philosophy of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, mantras are used in different ways and have different structures, functions, and types. The word Shingon implies mantra in the Japanese Shingon tradition.

In tantra, mantras play a crucial part. Mantras are regarded in this school as a very personal ritual and sacred formula that may only be used after initiation. Initiation is not required in other branches of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, or Sikhism.

Etymology and origins

Mantra is a Sanskrit word that comes from the root man, which means “to think.”

Mantras are thought to have been used before 1000 BC, according to scholars. According to Frits Staal, mantras in Hinduism had evolved into a blend of art and science by the middle Vedic period (1000 BC to 500 BC).

The Japanese on’yomi reading of the Chinese is shingon, and the Chinese equivalent is, ; zhenyan; “genuine words” (which is also used as the proper name for the Shingon sect). Alex Wayman and Ryujun Tajima claim that “Zhenyan” (or “Shingon”) is the route of mantras, has the meaning of “an perfect mantra which discloses the truth of the dharmas,” and denotes “genuine speech.”

Bernfried Schlerath claims that the idea of styas mantras may be found in the Rigveda and Indo-Iranian Yasna 31.6, where it is referred to as poetic (religious) formulations that are linked to innate satisfaction.

History

Indianist Frits Staal claims that early Vedic poets were enamoured with the uplifting potential of poetry, metrical verses, and music. They were referred to by the root dhi-, which developed into the Hindu practise of dhyana (meditation), and the words used to initiate and support this process took the form of mantras. All vedic compositions were turned into mantras by the middle vedic period (1000 BC to 500 BC). For instance, they contained “c” (verses from the Rigveda), “sman” (musical chants from the Smaveda), “yajus” (a murmured phrase from the Yajurveda), and “nigada” (a loudly spoken yajus). Mantras expanded and changed in many ways during and after the time of the Hindu Epics to satisfy the desires and inclinations of diverse schools of Hinduism. One of Lord Shiva’s 1,008 titles is recorded as Mantra in the Linga Purana.

The tarot (/taero/, originally known as trionfi and subsequently as tarocchi or tarocks) is a deck of playing cards that has been used in different regions of Europe from at least the mid-15th century to play card games like Italian Tarocchini. From their Italian origins, tarot cards expanded over much of Europe, developing into a family of games that includes more modern games like French Tarot and Austrian Königrufen, which are being played today, as well as German Grosstarok. Custom decks for use in tarot card reading and cartomancy emerged in the late 18th century as a result of French occultists’ complex but unsupported assertions about their origins and significance. As a result, there are two different kinds of tarot packs: those used for divination and those used for playing games. But some older designs, like the Tarot de Marseille, which was created for card games, have also been applied to cartomancy.

Tarot includes four suits, which are similar to playing cards and differ by region: French suits in Northern Europe and Latin suits in Southern Europe. Each suit has 14 cards: four face cards (King, Queen, Knight, and Jack/Knave/Page) and 10 pip cards, numbered from one (or Ace) to ten. The tarot also features a single card known as the Fool and a distinct 21-card trump suit. Fool could play as the top trump or it might be used to avoid doing so depending on the game.

Only specifically created cartomantic tarot cards are easily accessible in English-speaking nations where these games aren’t frequently performed, and they’re mostly employed for amusement and divination. These assertions have been regularly made by writers on card divination since since the early French occultists claimed that tarot cards had esoteric connections to ancient Egypt, Iran, the Kabbalah, Indic Tantra, or the I Ching. However, academic studies have shown that tarot cards were created in northern Italy around the middle of the 15th century and have proven that there is no historical proof of their use before the late 18th century.

The origin of playing cards is uncertain, although they initially arrived in Europe in the late 14th century. The first records, mostly of card games being outlawed, are from Berne in 1367, and they appear to have spread throughout all of Europe quite quickly. Little is known about the design and quantity of these cards; the only significant information is found in a text written in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1377 by John of Rheinfelden, who, in addition to other versions, describes the basic pack as consisting of the four still-in-use suits of 13 cards, with the courts typically being the King, Ober, and Unter (“marshals”), although Dames and Queens were already well-known by that time.

The suits of Batons or Clubs, Coins, Swords, and Cups were one of the earliest card patterns to emerge. These suits are still present in classic decks of playing cards from Italy, Spain, and Portugal, as well as in contemporary (occult) tarot cards that originally emerged in the late 18th century.

Between 1440 and 1450, in Milan, Ferrara, Florence, and Bologna, extra trump cards with allegorical pictures were added to the conventional four-suit pack, resulting in the earliest known tarot decks. The additional cards, known simply as trionfi, later became known as “trumps” in English. These new decks were known as carte da trionfi, triumph cards, and trionfi. The first recorded account of trionfi may be discovered in a 1440 Florence court document referring to the transfer of two decks to Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta.

The old Indian system of architecture is described in literature referred to as vastu shastra (vastu satra, literally “science of architecture”). These books go with design, layout, measurement, groundwork, space planning, and spatial geometry ideas. By incorporating geometric patterns (yantra), symmetry, and directional alignments, the designs seek to link architecture with nature, the relative functions of different structural components, and traditional beliefs.

Vastu Shastra are the written portion of Vastu Vidya, which is the more comprehensive knowledge of ancient Indian architectural and design philosophies. Vastu Vidya is a collection of flexible ideas and concepts that can be used with or without the aid of layout designs.

According to Chakrabarti, in modern India, consultants like “quacks, priests, and astrologers” who are motivated by profit are peddling pseudoscience and superstition under the guise of Vastu-sastras. They are unfamiliar with the real teachings of the ancient Vastu-sastra books, and instead of elaborating on any of the texts’ “architectural theory,” they couch their discussion in terms of “religious tradition.”

A residence or home with a related parcel of land is referred to as a “vstu” in Sanskrit. The word “vrddhi,” which means “the site or foundation of a house,” is also used to refer to “the site, land, construction or dwelling-place, habitation, homestead, or residence.” Vas, which means “to dwell, live, remain, or inhabit,” is the root. Shastra may be translated roughly as “doctrine, instruction.”

The Vstu-astras, or “science of living,” are historic Sanskrit architectural textbooks. These have Vastu-Vidya in them (literally, knowledge of dwelling).

The Hindu god Vishwakarma is generally credited with creating building, crafts, and vastu. There have been theories linking the vastu shastra’s compositional principles to the Indus Valley civilisation, however researcher Kapila Vatsyayan views them as conjecture because the Indus Valley writing is still unintelligible. Chakrabarti asserts that Vastu Vidya is as ancient as the Vedic era and is connected to ceremonial building. Michael W. Meister asserts that although the Atharvaveda has passages with mystic cosmogony that offer a template for cosmic planning, neither architecture nor a developed practise are represented by them.

Some claim that the vaastu sastras have their origins in literature from before the first century CE, although these claims suffer from being open to interpretation. For instance, the Sulba-sutras, which date to the 4th century BCE, include the mathematical guidelines and procedures for building the Vedic yajna square for the sacrifice fire. However, these are ceremonial things and not permanent structures like houses, temples, or larger objects. One of the first known Indian manuscripts with specific chapters devoted to architectural principles is Varahamihira’s Brihat Samhita, which dates to around the sixth century CE. For instance, the Brihat Samhita’s Chapter 53, titled “On Architecture,” examines several aspects of vastu sastra, including “designing cities and buildings,” “housing constructions, orientation, storeys, and building balconies,” among other issues. We must admit that Varahamihira did refer to his own sources on vastu as previous books and sages, says Indian architecture expert Michael Meister. These, however, could be myths and represent the Indian custom of giving mythological sages and deities credit.