IndianJournalofTraditionalKnowledge

Vol.3(2),April2004,pp.154161

SpectralanalysisoftheVedicmantraOmkara

HeisnamJinaDevi,NVCSwamy*andHRNagendra
HinduUniversityofAmerica,Orlando,Florida,USA
ExtensionCenter,VivekanandaYogaAnusandhanaSamsthana,Bangalore
Email:swamynvc@yahoo.com
Received28May2003revised31December2003

IthasbeenrecognisedforquitesometimethatMantrasorsacredwordshavebeneficialeffectsonhumanbeingsandevenplants.Inaprevious
study,theauthorshavedemonstratedtheeffectofAgnihotramantrachantingatsunriseandsunsetonthegerminationofriceseeds.Scripturesalso
mentionthatmantraslikeOm,GayatriandMrityunjayahavebenefitedhumanityquitealot.
Thispaperisanattempttoidentifyquantitativelythesignalcharacteristicsofmantrasoundpatterns.Itisapilotstudyandappearstobeoneofthe
firstofitskindintheworld.ThestudyhasconfineditselftotheidentificationofthepredominantfrequenciesandtheirsubharmonicsofAkara,U
kara,MakaraandOmkara.
Keywords:Spectralanalysis,Vedicmantra,Omkara.
IPCInt.Cl.7:G10K115/02.

Sincetimeimmemorial,therehasbeenabeliefthatsacredwordsandtheircombinationscalledMantrashavebeneficialeffects
onhumanbeings,animalsandeventheplantkingdom.Thisbeliefhasbeensowidespreadthatpracticallyeveryscripturerefersto
it in some way or other. Extensive details regarding the meaning and significance of Mantras and their use in daily life are
availableinJinaDevi1.
Recently, some investigations have been carried out on the effect of chanting of Agnihotra mantra at sunrise and sunset,
accompanied by sacrificial fire, on the germination of rice seeds2. It has been demonstrated with the help of controlled
experimentsthattheAgnihotraritualperformedaccordingtoscripturalinjunctionshasaremarkableeffectontherateofriceseed
germination. This naturally leads to the questionwhat is that aspect of the mantra which influences the germination so
noticeably?
While a qualitative analysis of the effect of mantras is easily done, a quantitative analysis is more complicated. Itis known
fromscripturesthatmantraslikeOm,Agnihotramantra,GayatrimantraandMahamrityunjayamantrahavebenefitedhumanityto
a large extent. However, it is very difficult to pinpoint what precisely there is in these mantras which makes them so effective.
This requires a detailed study of the sound patterns of the mantras and their characteristics, based upon the latest advances in
speechsynthesis,analysisandrecognition.Itisagainstthisbackgroundthatthestudyreportedinthispaperwasundertaken.To
thebestoftheauthorsknowledge,thisappearstobethefirststudyofitskind.

Literature
SincethetimeofLordRayleigh,i.e.,thebeginningofthe19thcentury,therehasbeenalotofinterestinstudyingtheeffectof
musiconthehumansystem.ItisonlyrecentlythatinteresthasdevelopedinextendingthisworktoMantrasalso.
In 1981, Stigsby et al3 conducted a study on the effect of mantra meditation on the electroencephalograms of experienced
meditators. The results were inconclusive. Seer & Raeburn4 conducted a similar study on the effect of meditation training on
hypertension.Herealso,thestudyshowedmodestreductionsinbloodpressure,buttheresultswereagaininconclusive.
In1994,Tellesetal5conductedexperimentsontheeffectofOmmeditationonMiddleLatencyAuditoryEvokedPotentialsof
18malesubjectsbetweentheagesof25and45years,9ofwhomhadmorethan10yearsofexperienceinOmmeditationandthe
other 9 had no experience at all. The results indicated that the experimental group showed an increase in the peak amplitude of
Nawave,whereastherewasasignificantdecreaseinthecontrolgroup.
Theyextendedthisworkin19986,withtheexperimentalgroupmeditatingonOmandthecontrolgroupmeditatingonaneutral
wordOne.MentalrepetitionofOmshowedasignificantdecreaseinskinresistanceleveloftheexperimentalgroupasagainstthe
controlgroup.Therewasalsoareductionintheheartrateandtherateofbreathing.
Takahashietal7conducted a pilot study in 1999 on the effect of low frequency noise on human body vibration.They showed
thatthelowfrequencynoiseaffectsthehealthofindividualsdependingonthestructureofthebody.Thefrequencyrangeusedby
themwasfrom20to50Hz,whichisquitebelowthefrequencyofanormalhumanvoice.
Perhapsthemostinterestingstudy,andthemostrelevantforourcurrentwork,isthatofUchida&Yamamoto80theeffectof
soundformsonthegerminationofseeds,whichshowedthatsinusoidalvibrationsintherangeof40to120Hzhadasignificant
effectonseedgermination.Theincreaseintherateofseedgerminationdependeduponthefrequencyandwasnoticeableinthe
rangeof70to100Hz.Thisbehaviour,however,wasnotuniformlynoticedforseedsofdifferentvarieties.Thisworkcompares
favourablywithourownstudiesontheeffectofAgnihotraMantraonthegerminationofriceseedsasreportedinJinaDevi2.
It is thus seen that attention has so far been focused on the effect of sound forms, hardly anything having been done on the
structure of the sound forms or mantras. Unless one knows the sound characteristics of mantras in detail, one will not be in a
positiontoidentifythefactors,whichhavebeenfoundtoinfluenceseedgerminationinthetwostudiesreferredtointheprevious
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MaterialsandMethods
Theexperimentconsistedofthefollowingsteps:recordingofthemantrawiththehelpofasensitivemicrophone,digitizingthe
analogwaveformswiththehelpofacomputerwithasamplingrateof44100persecond,analysingthedigitizeddatatoextract
informationaboutthefrequencyandtheenergyspectrafromthewaveform,andtoidentifythepredominantfrequencies.
It was decided as a first step to concentrate on the study of the mantra Om, with its components A, U and Ma. The system
configurationusedconsistedofamicrophone,acomputerfittedwiththeSoundBlastersoftwareandthenecessarysoftwarefor
spectralanalysis.
In the first trial, an ordinary microphone was used, fitted to a computer with vocal response. It was seen that the noise level
was rather high, affecting the signaltonoise ratio, even though the recording had been done in a room with a quiet ambience.
Subsequenttrialsshowedthatthenoiseinthesignalwasduetothepoorqualityofthemicrophone.
Amoresophisticatedmicrophonewasthenfittedtothesystem.Trialsshowedthatthenoiselevelwasconsiderablyreduced.
ThequalityofthesignalwasthenvettedbytwoexpertsinthefieldofAcoustics,onefromtheIndianInstituteofScienceandthe
otherfromDatalogicPvt.Ltd.,bothfromBangalore.
Fourrecordingswerethenmade,twowithmalevoicesandtheothertwowithfemalevoices.Therecordingswererestrictedto
Akara, Ukara, Makara and Omkara. After a few repeated recordings, the ones with the best quality of reproduction were
chosenforanalysis.Theresultsoftheanalysisarepresentedinthenextsection.

Results
ThewaveformsofAkara,Ukara,MakaraandOmkarawereusedasrawdatatoextractthefollowinginformation:

(a)Shorttimewindowpatternsofthefourvoicesdisplayingtheperiodicityofthesignals.
(b)Energyfrequencyspectra,withprominentfrequenciesandsubharmonics.
(c)Frequencytimespectraorspectrograms.
(d)Hundredmillisecondrecordsofthewaveformsasenergyfrequencyspectra.

Only a small sample of the above results is presented here to illustrate the conclusions drawn. A full record of the above,
runningto126figuresisavailableinJinaDevi1.
FigureslaandIbshowthewaveformsforafemaleandamalevoice,respectivelyforallthefourlettersA,U,MaandOm.
Thisrepresentsthedirectrecordingonthe

Fig.1

Fig.2

computer,whichissubjectedtodigitalanalysis.OnecanclearlyrecognisethatAhasaflatsignal,Uisinitiallyflatbuttapersoff,

MaalsotapersofflikeU,butOmdisplays
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twosegments,oneforOandtheotherforM.Thisisingeneraltrueforallwaveforms.
Figures2aand2bshowexpandedwaveforms,clearlyindicatingtheperiodicnatureofthesignalsandthelownoiselevel.This
again is generally true of all signals recorded. This implies that the signals can be analysed as periodic functions and not as
randomsignals.
Figures3and4showrespectivelytheenergyfrequencyspectraforthewaveformsshowninfiguresIand2.Itisseenthatthe
fundamentalfrequencyforthefemalevoiceisapproximatelydoublethatforthemalevoice.Itisalsoseenthattheenergycontent
goesdownto1%ofitspeakvaluearoundthe4thsubharmonicforthefemalevoiceandthe6thforthemalevoice.Thisisagain
thegeneraltrendforallcasesstudied.

Fig.3

Fig.4

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Fig.6

Figures5and6showspectrogramsforthesamplecases.Figure5istheenergytimespectrogramforthefemalevoiceforOm
andfigure6thatforthemalevoice.ThecorrespondingcasesforA,UandMahavenotbeenshownhere,butthegeneraltrends
willbediscussedinthenextsection.
Discussion
The most important figures from which useful results can be extracted are the figures 5 and 6. These are frequencytime
spectra, called spectrograms, representing the peaks of the energyfrequency spectra as a function of time. In these figures, no
energylevelsareindicated.However,darkbandsrepresentpredominantlyhighenergyregionsandwhitepatchesrepresentalmost
zeroenergy.Thelevelofgreycolourisanindicatoroftherelativelevelsofenergy.
Spectrograms are used to separate the characteristics of the voice from those of words. The lowest frequency, which is the
bottommostlineinthesefigures,indicatesthepitch,whichisacharacteristicofthevoice.Sincethemalevoicehasalowerpitch
compared to the female voice, it also has a lower fundamental frequency. In the present case, the ratio of the fundamental
frequenciesofthemaleandfemalevoicesisabout1:2,whichistheusualcase.
The male voices in the present cases have also a larger number of subharmonics than the female voices, before the energy
dropsofftonegligiblevalues.Thisisatypicalfeatureofthehumanvoice,whichisduetothedifferenceinstructureofthevoice
producingmechanism.
Adetailedstudyofallthespectrogramsshowedthatthetwomalevoiceshadthefundamentalfrequenciesof108Hzand118
Hz. The corresponding values for the female voices were 237 Hz and 242 Hz. In the case of A, both the male voices show 11
subharmonics,whereasboththefemalevoicesshow6subharmonics.InthecaseofU,thetwomalevoicesshow7subharmonics,
but the female voices have only 1 subharmonic. For Ma, the number of subharmonics for the male and the female voices was
respectively3and1.
AmoreinterestingresultisthatforOm.Thissignalhastwosegments,startingwithOandgraduallytaperingofftoM.From
thepointofviewofintonationandtheshapeandthecavityofthemouth,thesoundOisinbetweenthesoundsAandU.Thiswas
clearly seen in all the four figures for Om, of which only two are presented in figures 5 and 6. The male voices show 9
subharmonicsintheregionofOand2intheregionofM.Inthecaseofthefemalevoices,theseare4forOand1forM.Thus,it
isclearlyseenthatthesoundpatternforOinallcasesliesbetweenthoseforAandU.Inthesecondsegment,allsoundpatterns
agreewiththoserecordedearlierforM.
Thereisaninternalconsistencyinthedata,whichtestifiestoitsauthenticityandreliability.

Conclusions
Ithasthusbeenpossibletoidentifythe.fundamentalandsubharmonicsforthesoundpatternsA,U,MaandOm,accordingto
theSanskritpronunciation.
Where is a work of this type useful? Consider the two investigations referred to earlier in Jina Devi2 and Uchida &
Yamamoto8.Thesetwoweredonealmostatthesametime,butindependentlyofeachother.Butacomparisonbetweenthemis
almostimpossible,becausethesoundpatternsusedbythetwogroupscannotbecompared.Itisonlywhenthespectrogramsare
properlyanalysedandthesoundcharacteristicsproperlyidentified,doesacomparisonbecomemeaningful.Byrecordingthesound
patterns and extracting their frequency characteristics, one can identify that frequency which has the most noticeable effect on
seedgerminationandonlythendoesacomparisonbecomepossible.
ItisproposedtoanalyseinafuturestudytheAgnihotramantraspectrallyandtousethisinformationingerminationstudies.

Acknowledgements
The motivation for this work came through a casual remark made by Dr. N. Seshagiri, former Chairman, Electronics
Commission to the second author, about the ancient belief in the efficacy of mantras. The authors wish to thank him. Help and
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encouragementwerereceivedfromProf.T.V.SrinivasoftheIndianInstituteofScience,Bangalore,Dr.N.Chandrasekharaof
M/sDatalogicPvt.Ltd.,andfromSriPeetabasaPatioftheIndianInstituteofScience.ThevoiceswerelentbyMsVasundhara,
Japan
SriChandrasekharanandthefirsttwoauthors.SriRaghavendrahelpedinthevoicerecordingsandtheiranalysis.Thisworkforms
partoftheMSdissertationofthefirstauthor,submittedtotheHinduUniversityofAmerica,Florida,USA.

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*Correspondentauthor

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