Within the series, Mara is portrayed as a large, phallic creature, often shown riding a golden chariot.
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Mara has been prominently featured in the Megami Tensei video game series as a demon. The former source includes a gatha that Mara recited when his suffering was lifted:Īdoration to the Master of the three samādhis, At Upagupta's recommendation, he vowed never to do harm to the Dharma and took refuge in the Three Jewels. Mara returned to the human world where he prostrated before the monk and repented. Brahma informed him that because the necklace was bestowed by an advanced disciple of the Buddha, its effects could only be assuaged by taking refuge in Upagupta. When Mara discovered the true nature of the gift, he sought the help of Brahma to remove it. Upagupta reciprocated by transforming the corpses of a man, a dog, and a snake into a garland and gifted it to Mara. When Upagupta entered samadhi, Mara approached him and slipped a jade necklace around his neck. This caused Mara's palace to tremble, prompting the deity to use his destructive powers against the Dharma. The Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp and the Denkoroku both contain a story of Mara's conversion to Buddhism under the auspices of the monk Upagupta.Īccording to the story, Upagupta journeyed to the kingdom of Mathura and preached the Dharma with great success. Some stories refer to the existence of Five Daughters, who represent not only the Three Poisons of Attraction, Aversion, and Delusion, but also include the daughters Pride, and Fear. They had come to him glittering with beauty – Taṇhā, Arati, and Rāga – But the Teacher swept them away right there As the wind, a fallen cotton tuft. For example, in the Samyutta Nikaya's Māra-sa ṃyutta, Mara's three daughters were stripping in front of Buddha but failed to entice the Buddha: Mara's three daughters are identified as Taṇhā (Thirst), Arati (Aversion, Discontentment), and Rāga (Attachment, Desire, Greed, Passion). In some accounts of the Buddha's enlightenment, it is said that the demon Māra didn't send his three daughters to tempt but instead they came willingly after Māra's setback in his endeavor to eliminate the Buddha's quest for enlightenment. This posture is also referred to as the bhūmisparśa "earth-witness" mudra. The fingers of his right hand touch the earth, to call the earth as his witness for defying Mara and achieving enlightenment. The Buddha is shown with his left hand in his lap, palm facing upwards and his right hand on his right knee. "Buddha defying Mara" is a common pose of Buddha sculptures. The Denkōroku refers to him as the "One Who Delights in Destruction", which highlights his nature as a deity among the Parinirmitavaśavarti devas. Mara is described both as an entity having an existence in Kāma-world, just as are shown existing around the Buddha, and also is described in pratītyasamutpāda as, primarily, the guardian of passion and the catalyst for lust, hesitation and fear that obstructs meditation among Buddhists. Devaputra-māra - the deva of the sensuous realm, who tried to prevent Gautama Buddha from attaining liberation from the cycle of rebirth on the night of the Buddha’s enlightenment.Įarly Buddhism acknowledged both a literal and psychological interpretation of Mara.Skandha-māra - Māra as metaphor for the entirety of conditioned existence.Kleśa-māra - Māra as the embodiment of all unskillful emotions, such as greed, hate and delusion.In traditional Buddhism, four metaphorical forms of "māra" are given: It is "very wide-spread" in Indo-European languages suggesting it to be of great antiquity, according to Mallory and Adams. The root mṛ is related to the Indo-European verbal root *mer meaning "die, disappear" in the context of "death, murder or destruction".
The latter is a name for death personified and is sometimes identified with Yama.
It is related to other words for death from the same root, such as: maraṇa and mṛtyu. Māra is a verbal noun from the causative root and means 'causing death' or 'killing'. It takes a present indicative form mṛyate and a causative form mārayati (with strengthening of the root vowel from ṛ to ār). The word "Māra" comes from the Sanskrit form of the verbal root mṛ.
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