A question to me regarding mantrams and stotrams

A question to me regarding mantrams and stotrams

In the beginning of many stotras we chant .... Rishi:, ..... Chhanda:, ......Devata....

Where names vary

My reply

Even at the outset, let me point out that all stotrams are not chanted with rishi, chands and devata in the beginning..

Such mention is more significant for mantrams

And every anuvakam in Veda is considered to be a mantra and the ancient stages have already fixed rishi, chandas and devata for each sub chapter of the Vedic chant.. That is fixed

Stotrams are just rendered in praise of the Deities.. Mantrams are more formal.. There would be hardly a mantram without a rishi chandas and devata..

The mantras could be Vedic, Puranic, Tantric and general too

Similar classification would apply to stotrams too

The various procedural aspects of chanting a mantram are given below..

These ideas would apply to Stotrams too with changes wherever necessary

Rishi.. is the great personage who is believed to have discovered the Mantra.. the guru who brought the mantra to this world.. a mantra drashta... He could be the author of the mantra too.. For example Vedavyas the author of Mahabharatham is the Rishi for Vishnusahasranamam which appears in that epic.

Chchhandas is the metre in which the mantram is chanted..

There are ever so manty Chhandaas, and Vritthams

and

Devata is the deity in whose honour or for whose propition or seeking whose help we are rendering the mantram

As a prelude to chanting of mantra we perform certain protective rituals like anganyasa, karanyasa etc Chanting of Pranavam and Pranayama are also performed as prelude

Anganyasa is the ceremonial touching of the various parts of the body of the one who is about to chant.. invoking the divine presence in the respective parts of the body.. Karanyasam.. is the process of invoking the divine presence on the fingers of the one who chants.

We give a declaration as to the purpose for which the mantra is chanted.. this is called Viniyogam.. the purposes can vary from time to time, place to place, occasion to occasion..

Sure, if the structure of the mantram is the same, the metre or chandas cannot change

Some stotras etc, are found with identical word structure, but they appear in different texts, and they are chanted signifying different deities or devatas.. Most of the descriptive parts of the stotram or mantram would be general in nature, and the parts describing the identity of the deity only would differ.

In such cases, the Devatas might vary

In addition to this, the save Deity might have different names, like Vishnu, Narayana, Govinda, Keshava.. Shiva, shankara, Shambu, Durga, Parvathi, Bhavani.. etc. So maybe due to local practices the name of the Devata used might vary..

Ane regarding rishis also, usually, in Vedic mantras etc, the names of the rishis or discoverers of the mantra are fixed.. But the individual rishi might have different names.. like Kaushika, Visvamitra, Gadheya.. etc meaning the same rishi

And in some practices, the mantram would have been introduced by a different rishi to a particular section of the people, and they would have adopted him as the rishi..

And usually in the beginning of every mantram there would be a dhyanasloam.. An invocatory stanza describing the form, glory and the great qualities of the deity who is being honoured through the mantras.. Of course, the same deity migh have thousands of qualities and there may be many descriptions regarding his various aspects. So the dhyanaslokam too can vary.

At the conclusion of the mantram session there would be a phalashruti or some stanzas giving details of the benefits of chanting such mantras.. These stanzas too can vary for the same mantras, according to local practices..

It has to be pointed out that some Vedic and Tantric Mantrams are rigidly structured, and their rishis, chandas or devata would never change..

But every day some persons, many of them do not know the sense or meaning of the mantram, would use it and they would have inherited it in parts, and they would just try to fill in the gaps whrever they have no traditional data, and such new strains of the same mantram might arise..

Mantras.. chants, spells, or stotras.. they have no rigid structure.. Their contents and way of rendering all can vary from person to person