மந்திரம்

This material is a Tamil palm-leaf manuscript from Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. This palmleaf manuscript written by Civaliṅkam addresses the areas of Magic, sorcery, theurgy. These are practices with a long heritage in Batticaloa as know from the recurring terms for such practices such as mantiram, mantirīkam. These terms also cover practices of posession by gods, trance related practices. It involves elusive practices that continue to be seen as enigmatic and thus cause fear. The manuscript contains details of practice used to drive away spirits from the body, make contact with spirits, curse removal, water based ritual practices, enacting spells using rice, protective spells against theives etc. There are also specific rituals for protective deities such as vairavaṉ, kaṉṉimār etc. Letters are not clear in the last pages of this manuscript. It contains 144 pages. Extent: 144.0. Size and dimensions of original material: L 13.7 cm, W 2.6 cm. Original institution reference: 2.0.