The Garland of the Brass Bugle of Mantras: Vedānta Deśika’s Tirucciṉṉamālai: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

Śrivaiṣṇava literature on mantras begins at the outset with ubiquitous references to the Nārāyaṇa Mūlamantra (also known as Aṣṭākṣara or “eightsyllabled”) in the corpus of the Nālāyirattiviyappirapantam. Thus, for instance, in several verses of the devotional corpus, the Mūlamantra, or Tirumantra as it is known, is frequently mentioned by the āḻvārs, particularly by Periyāḻvār, Tirumaṅkai āḻvār and Tirumaḻicai āḻvār.2 The significance attributed to the mantras specific to Viṣṇu in his form as Viṣṇu-Nārāyaṇa is a thread running throughout Śrīvaiṣṇava literature, particularly in the devotional stotra genre. We see this already in Rāmānuja’s writings3 and in that of his immediate successors, such as in the Ñāṉasāram of Aruḷāḷapperumāḷ Emperumāṉār and the Aṣṭaślokī of Parāśara Bhaṭṭar.