Mantranaya

Mantranaya. Literally "way of mantras". One of multiple names for the practice of tantra within the Mahayana tradition, along with mantrayana, vajrayana, tantrayana, etc.

The term the mantranaya was used in the early phase of tantric Buddhism. In this phase, mantra-naya was presented as a system of Mahayana practice that would compliment the more commonly known Mahayana practices, which were referred to as paramita-naya ("way of the paramitas").

The Indo-Tibetan Lexical Resource states:

The term mantranaya is one of the oldest and best attested designations of tantric Mahāyāna Buddhism, often paired with pāramitānaya for non-Tantric Mahāyāna. Naturally enough (since naya and nīti will in normal usage often be synonymous), mantranīti is a common synonym. Mantrayāna is an even more common synonym, sometimes paired with pāramitāyāna. Mantramārga is also used as a synonym, though it is noticeably of rarer occurrence than mantranaya and mantranīti. The order of frequency of use of these terms in Buddhist literature seems to be mantranaya, mantrayāna, mantranīti, mantramārga.

Note that in Śaiva literature mantramārga is the most common designation of the Tantric form of Śaivism, while mantranaya, mantranīti, and mantrayāna are virtually unattested. Of these four terms, only mantramārga is current (though much less common than in Śaiva texts) in Vaiṣṇava Pāñcarātra tantric literature.

Vesna Wallace states:

As attested in many tantric sources, the terms Mantrayāna, Mantranaya, Mantranīta, and Mantramārga are employed interchangeably.

Sources

• Harvey, Peter (2013), An Introduction to Buddhism (Second ed.), Cambridge University Press 
• Vesna A. Wallace, “A Brief Exploration of Late Indian Buddhist Exegeses of the ‘Mantrayāna’ and ‘Mantranaya’.” Pacific World: Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies 13, 2011, pp. 95–112.