Wikipedia

Mara (demon)

For other uses, seeMara.

Mara,[note 1]inBuddhism,is aAsuramalignant celestial king who tried to stopPrince Siddharthafrom achieving Enlightenment by trying to seduce him with his celestial Army and the vision of beautiful women who, in various legends, are often said to be Mara's daughters.[1]

Translations of
Māra
EnglishMara; Demon
Sanskritमार, Māra
PaliMāra
Burmeseမာရ်နတ်
(MLCTS:Marnat)
ChineseThiên Ma; ma la; ma la
(Pinyin:Tiān Mó; Mó Luó; Mó Luó)
IndonesianMara; Setan; Iblis
JapaneseMa la; マーラ; Thiên Ma
(Rōmaji:Mara; Māra; Tenma)
Khmerមារ
(UNGEGN:Méru)
Korean마라
(RR:Mara)
Sinhalaමාරයා
(Mārayā)
Tibetanབདུད
(Wylie:bdud)
Thaiมาร
(RTGS:Māra)
VietnameseThiên Ma
Glossary of Buddhism
Relief fragment of Mara inGandharastyle, found inSwat Valley
The demons of mara.Palm leaf manuscript.Nalanda,Bihar,India
Mara's assault on the Buddha (ananiconicrepresentation: the Buddha is only symbolized byhis throne), 2nd century,Amaravati Stupa,India
Mara, his lustful daughters, and demonic army, attempting to tempt Buddha, on a 10th-century icon fromMogao Caves

InBuddhist cosmology,Mara is associated with death, rebirth and desire.[2]Nyanaponika Therahas described Mara as "the personification of the forces antagonistic to enlightenment."[3]

He isYama's fearsome persona and all beings associated with him, darkness and death, become forces of Mara. These forces consist ofYaksas,Raksases,Pisacas,Aratis and animals.[4]

Origin

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His name is first mentioned in theAtharva Veda(1200 BCE–1000 BCE) asYama,Mrtyuand Agha Mara, the evil slayer. He is called the "evil one who kills" and "Papiyan", denoting a being which is not only morally bad but intertwined with sorrow, pain and misfortune.[5]

While Mara's origin is of Hindu nature, the development of the symbolism of Mara was spread by Buddhism.[6]

Etymology

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The wordMāracomes from the Sanskrit form of the verbal rootmṛ.It takes a present indicative formmṛyateand a causative formmārayati(with strengthening of the root vowel from ṛ to ār).Mārais a verbal noun from the causative root and means 'causing death' or 'killing'.[7]It is related to other words for death from the same root, such as:maraṇaandmṛtyu.The latter is a name for death personified and is sometimes identified withYama.

The rootmṛis related to theIndo-Europeanverbal root*mermeaning "die, disappear" in the context of "death, murder or destruction". It is "very wide-spread" inIndo-European languagessuggesting it to be of great antiquity, according to Mallory and Adams.[8]

Four types of Māra

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In traditional Buddhism, four or five[citation needed]metaphorical forms of Māra are given:[9]

  • Kleśa-māra– Māra as the embodiment of allunskillful emotions,such as greed, hate and delusion.
  • Mṛtyu-māra– Māra asdeath.
  • Skandha-māra– Māra asmetaphorfor the entirety of conditioned existence.
  • Devaputra-māra– thedevaof the sensuous realm, who tried to prevent Gautama Buddha from attaining liberation from thecycle of rebirthon the night of the Buddha'senlightenment.

Character

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Early Buddhismacknowledged both a literal and psychological interpretation of Mara.[10][11]

Mara is described both as an entity having an existence inKāma-world,[12]just as are shown existing around the Buddha, and also is described inpratītyasamutpādaas, primarily, the guardian ofpassionand the catalyst for lust, hesitation and fear that obstructsmeditationamong Buddhists. TheDenkōrokurefers to him as the "One Who Delights in Destruction", which highlights his nature as a deity among theParinirmitavaśavartidevas.[13]

"Buddha defying Mara" is a common pose ofBuddha sculptures.[14][15]The Buddha is shown with his left hand in his lap, palm facing upwards and his right hand on his right knee. The fingers of his right hand touch the earth, to call the earth as his witness for defying Mara and achieving enlightenment. This posture is also referred to as thebhūmisparśa "earth-witness" mudra.

Three daughters

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In some accounts of the Buddha's enlightenment, it is said that the demon Māra did not 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.[16]Mara's three daughters are identified asTaṇhā(Thirst),Arati(Aversion, Discontentment), andRāga(Attachment, Desire, Greed, Passion).[15][17]For example, in theSamyutta Nikaya'sMāra-saṃyutta,Mara's three daughters were undressing in front of the Buddha; but failed to entice him:

They had come to him glittering with beauty –
Taṇhā, Arati, and Rāga –
But theTeacherswept them away right there
As the wind, a fallen cotton tuft.[18]

The three daughters of Māra were inspired by Aratis, a type of feminine goblin that was associated with avarice.[19]

Mara's conversion

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The Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lampand theDenkorokuboth contain a story of Mara's conversion to Buddhism under the auspices of the monkUpagupta.

According to the story, Upagupta journeyed to the kingdom ofMathuraand preached the Dharma with great success. This caused Mara's palace to tremble, prompting the deity to use his destructive powers against the Dharma. When Upagupta enteredsamadhi,Mara approached him and slipped a jade necklace around his neck.

Upagupta reciprocated by transforming the corpses of a man, a dog, and a snake into a garland and gifted it to Mara. When Mara discovered the true nature of the gift, he sought the help ofBrahmato remove it. 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.

Mara returned to the human world where he prostrated before the monk and repented. At Upagupta's recommendation, he vowed never to do harm to the Dharma and took refuge in theThree Jewels.[20]

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Mara appears inRoger Zelazny's 1967 novelLord of Lightas a god of illusion.[21]

Mara has appeared as a recurring Demon in theMegami Tenseifranchise, as well as in its spinoffs. Here, Mara takes the appearance of a giant penis riding a golden chariot. Mara has consistently been one of the most popular demons in the series, even reaching #1 popularity on some demon popularity polls.[22]

In 2020, the singer-songwriterJack Garrattreleased a song entitled "Mara". Inspired by the story of Mara's distraction of the Buddha, "Mara" describes Garratt's experience ofintrusive thoughts.[23]

Notes

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  1. ^Sanskrit:मार,Māra;Sinhala:මාරයා;Chinese:Thiên Ma;pinyin:Tiānmóortraditional Chinese:Ma la;simplified Chinese:Ma la;pinyin:Móluó;Japanese:Ma la,romanized:Mara;also マーラ,Māraor Thiên Ma,Tenma;Korean:마라,romanized:Mara;Vietnamese:Thiên Ma;Tibetan Wylie:bdud;Khmer:មារ;Burmese:မာရ်နတ်;Thai:มาร;Tagalog:Mara

References

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  1. ^See, for instance,SN4.25, entitled, "Māra's Daughters" (Bodhi, 2000, pp. 217–220), as well asSn835 (Saddhatissa, 1998, p. 98). In each of these texts, Mara's daughters (Māradhītā) are personified by sensual Craving (taṇhā), Aversion (arati), and Passion (rāga).
  2. ^Trainor, Kevin (2004).Buddhism: The Illustrated Guide.Oxford University Press.p. 34.ISBN9780195173987.
  3. ^Thera, Nyanaponika (2008).The Roots of Good and Evil: Buddhist Texts translated from the Pali with Comments and Introduction.Buddhist Publication Society.p. 22.ISBN9789552403163.
  4. ^Karetzky (1982): 78. Raksases can have the form of male terrestrial goblins and animals (owls, vultures and dogs). They can also have the body of a human but these have deformities like three heads or horn on their heads. They act as messengers of Yama. Pisacas are connected with the death as they are described as flesh-eaters and corpse devourers. Aratis are female goblins who symbolise illiberaty. (Karetzky (1982): 79)
  5. ^Karetzky, Patricia Eichenbaum. "Māra, Buddhist Deity of Death and Desire."East and West,vol. 32, no. 1/4, 1982, pp. 75–92.JSTOR29756628.Accessed 5 Oct. 2024. p. 77.
  6. ^Ling (1962): Buddhism and the Mythology of Evil. London. p. 30.
  7. ^Olson, Carl (2005).The Different Paths of Buddhism: A Narrative-Historical Introduction.Rutgers University Press.p.28.ISBN9780813537788.
  8. ^J. P. Mallory; Douglas Q. Adams (1997).Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture.Taylor & Francis. pp. 150–153.ISBN978-1-884964-98-5.
  9. ^Buswell, Robert Jr;Lopez, Donald S. Jr.,eds. (2013).Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 530–531, 550, 829.ISBN9780691157863.
  10. ^Williams, Paul (2005).Buddhism: The early Buddhist schools and doctrinal history; Theravāda doctrine, Volume 2.Taylor & Francis. pp. 105–106.ISBN9780415332286.
  11. ^Keown, Damien (2009).Buddhism.Sterling Publishing Company. p. 69.ISBN9781402768835.
  12. ^"Mara, Māra: 13 definitions".wisdomlib.org.10 August 2008.
  13. ^Jokin, Keizan (2003)."The Denkōroku: The Record of the Transmission of the Light"(PDF).Translated by Hubert Nearman. Mount Shasta, California: OBC Shasta Abbey Press.Retrieved2019-12-06.
  14. ^Vogel, Jean Philippe; Barnouw, Adriaan Jacob (1936).Buddhist Art in India, Ceylon, and Java.Asian Educational Services. pp. 70–71.
  15. ^ab"The Buddha's Encounters with Mara the Tempter: Their Representation in Literature and Art".accesstoinsight.org.
  16. ^Keown, Damien (2004).A Dictionary of Buddhism.Oxford University Press.p. 174.ISBN9780191579172.
  17. ^See, e.g.,SN4.25 (Bodhi, 2000, pp. 217–20), andSn835 (Saddhatissa, 1998, p. 98). In a similar fashion, in Sn 436 (Saddhatissa, 1998, p. 48),taṇhāis personified as one of Death's four armies (senā) along with desire (kāmā), aversion (arati) and hunger-thirst (khuppipāsā).
  18. ^SN4.25, v. 518 (Bodhi, 2000, p. 220).
  19. ^Karetzky (1982): 79.
  20. ^Jokin, Keizan (2003)."The Denkōroku: The Record of the Transmission of the Light"(PDF).Translated by Hubert Nearman. Mount Shasta, California: OBC Shasta Abbey Press.Retrieved2019-12-06.
  21. ^"Lord of Light Summary".Shmoop.RetrievedAugust 18,2019.
  22. ^Reggy (2017-10-25)."Shin Megami Tensei Favorite Demon Official Poll Results [Update]".Persona Central.Retrieved2024-05-09.
  23. ^"Mara Inspiration".ladygunn. 5 February 2020.RetrievedApril 5,2020.

Sources

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Further reading

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