Mantra (mantra)

A mantra is a formula of sound whose correct utterance produces an effect, whether in a sacrifice, in the summoning of a deity or in the launching of a celestial weapon. The Mahabharata treats mantras as technology: Kunti summons gods with one she was given as a girl and is startled when it works, and every astra is a mantra attached to an arrow. Karna's ruin is a mantra that fails, since Parashurama's curse ensures the words desert him at the moment he most needs them.