Māra

The Buddhist 'Evil One', deity of death, desire and obstruction who assails the Bodhisattva at the awakening with armies and the three daughters; ruler of the highest desire-realm heaven in some schemes.

Children

• Aratī
• Rāgā
• Taṇhā

Domains

• death and the realm of desire
• temptation and delusion

Powers

• Tempt practitioners away from awakening
• Muster armies to assail the Bodhisattva
• Send seductive daughters to distract meditators

Epithets

• पापीयस् sanskrit · Pāpīyas · sutraThe Evil One; Māra Pāpimā, the more wickedMāra-saṃyutta, Saṃyutta Nikāya 4; Padhāna Sutta, Sutta Nipāta 3.2 (primary)
• नमुचि sanskrit · Namuci · sutraHe who does not let go; a name of MāraPadhāna Sutta, Sutta Nipāta 3.2 (Māra addressed as Namuci) (primary)
• मृत्यु sanskrit · Mṛtyu · sutraDeath; Māra as the lord of deathMāra-saṃyutta, Saṃyutta Nikāya 4; standard Buddhist exegesis of the four māras (primary)
• Māra Pāpīyas Pali · Māra Pāpīyas · epithet'Māra the Evil One / more wicked'Padhāna Sutta, Suttanipāta 3.2. (primary)
• Namuci Pali · Namuci · epithet'he who does not let go', name shared with a Vedic demonPadhāna Sutta, Suttanipāta 3.2. (primary)

Relations

• enemy: PṛthivīReciprocal of buddhist_prthivi.enemy — Called to witness by the Buddha's earth-touching gesture, she routed Mara's host at the bodhimanda.Lalitavistara Sutra (primary)
• equated with: KamadevaMāra carries Kāma's bow and flower-arrows and the epithet Kāmadeva; desire's god is recast as death-and-desire personified, the adversary of awakening. Kāma's consort Rati and playful eros drop away.Aśvaghoṣa, Buddhacarita XIII.2 (Māra introduced as Kāmadeva, wielder of the flower-arrows); Lalitavistara ch. 21 (primary); T.O. Ling, Buddhism and the Mythology of Evil (1962) (secondary)

Sources

• existence: Pali Canon, Māra-saṃyutta (SN 4) (primary); Lalitavistara Sūtra (primary)