“Mará, Mará” mantra

The “Mará, Mará” mantra is presented as a reversed form of Ráma’s mantra and as the practice through which Válmíki is said to have undergone a radical transformation. Its account appears in a footnote rather than as a scene in the main narrative, where the repeated utterance becomes part of the explanation for the sage’s name and ascetic identity.

Form and Reported Origin

The footnote identifies Válmíki as the son of Varuna, the regent of the waters, whose other name is Prachetas. It then relays a different strand of tradition: although a Brahmin by birth, Válmíki associated with foresters and robbers. On one occasion, he attacked seven Rishis. They answered him with instruction rather than simply leaving the encounter, teaching him Ráma’s mantra in reversed form: “Mará, Mará.”

The footnote attributes this account to the Adhyátmá Rámáyaṇa, citing Wilson. The framing matters: the mantra’s origin story is offered as an explanatory tradition, not narrated as part of the poem’s main action.

Repetition and Transformation

Válmíki’s practice is described as inaudible repetition sustained for thousands of years. He remains immovable as time passes, and termite nests build up around him until he is converted into a valmík, an ant-hill. The account connects the discipline of repetition with bodily stillness and a visible change of state: the man who had attacked the sages becomes the hermit associated with the ant-hill.

The reversed wording is central to the episode as reported. The text calls “Mará, Mará” Ráma’s mantra reversed; it does not offer a further technical explanation of the recitation. Its significance lies in the narrative sequence the footnote supplies: instruction, prolonged repetition, transformation, and the name Válmíki.

Place in the Text’s Account of Válmíki

The mantra’s story provides background for Válmíki’s identity as a sage, while the poem’s main narrative also presents him as its teacher: he teaches the Ramayana to skilled reciters, who sing it in a royal hall, where Ráma hears their performance. These are distinct roles in the book’s framing. The footnote gives an origin account for the poet-seer; the narrative shows the poem passing from its teacher into performance and then reaching its royal subject.

Together, the passages place Válmíki at both ends of a chain of transmission: the footnote associates his own transformation with repeated sacred utterance, while the narrative depicts him teaching an extended poem for others to recite and sing.