Contents

1. Introduction
2. Maara Legends in Canonical Texts
3. Temptations by Maara in Non-canonical Buddhist Literature
4. Maara Episodes in Asian Buddhist Art
5. Conclusion

I. Introduction   

In his Dictionary of Paali Proper Names Professor G.P. Malalasekera introduces Maara as "the personification of Death, the Evil One, the Tempter (the Buddhist counterpart of the Devil or Principle of Destruction)." He continues: "The legends concerning Maara are, in the books, very involved and defy any attempts at unraveling them."[1]

Analyzing a series of allusions to Maara in the commentarial literature, he further elaborates on his definition with the following observations:

1. "In the latest accounts, mention is made of five Maaras — Khandhamaara, Kilesamaara, Abhisa"nkhaaramaara, Maccu-maara, and Devaputtamaara. Elsewhere Maara is spoken of as one, three, or four."[2]
2. "The term Maara, in the older books, is applied to the whole of the worldly existence, the five khandhas, or the realm of rebirth, as opposed to Nibbaana."[3]
3. Commentaries speaking of three Maaras specify them as Devaputtamaara, Maccumaara, and Kilesamaara. When four Maaras are referred to, they appear to be the five Maaras mentioned in (i) above less Devaputta Maara.

Malalasekera proceeds to attempt "a theory of Maara in Buddhism," which he formulates in the following manner:

What follows from this statement, even though Malalasekera did not elucidate enough, is that the term Maara, when it occurs in Buddhist literature, could signify any one of the following four:

1. An anthropomorphic deity ruling over a heaven in the sensual sphere (kaamaavacara-devaloka), namely, Paranimmita-Vasavatti. He is meant when Maara is called kaamadhaa-turaaja (the king of the sensual realm). In this position, he is as important and prestigious as Sakka and Mahaabrahma in whose company he is often mentioned in the canonical literature. This Maara, or Maaradevaputta, is not only a very powerful deity but is also bent on making life difficult for holy persons.
2. The Canon also speaks of (a) Maaras in the plural as a class of potent deities (e.g. in the Dhammacakkap-pavattana Sutta) and (b) of previous — hence, logically future — Maaras (e.g. in the Maaratajjaniiya Sutta). According to Tibetan texts, the Ascetic Siddhartha could have, with the instructions given by AAraa.dakaalaama, become a Sakra, a Brahmaa, or a Maara.[5]
3. A personification of Death is called also the lord of death (Maccuraaja), the exterminator (Antaka), the great king (mahaaraaja), and the inescapable (Namuci). The preoccupation of the Buddhist quest for deliverance is consistently stressed as escaping the phenomenon of death, which presupposes rebirth. The entire range of existence falls within the realm of Maara (Maaradheyya) on account of the ineluctable presence of death. (Cf. Schopenhauer's concept of "Morture."[6]) All states of existence, including the six heavenly worlds of the sensual sphere, are said to return to the power of Maara, which means into the power of death.[7]
4. Maara can also be seen as an allegorization, with almost immediate personification, of the power of temptation, the tendency towards evil, moral conflict, and the influence of such factors as indolence, negligence, and niggardliness. Similar to Satan in Judeo-Christian and Islamic thinking and Ahriman in Avestan thought, though in no way identical, this Maara is described as Paapimaa (i.e. the Evil One, or simply the Evil),[8] Pamattabandhu (Kinsman of Dalliance), Pisu.na (Calumnious or Malicious), and Ka.nha (the Black). Grimm calls this Maara "the prince and bestower of all worldly lust" and distinguishes him from Lucifer of the Bible on the ground that this personification "always remains apparent."[9]

In this paper, where the Buddha's encounters with Maara are analyzed as they are presented in literature and art, the main concern will be with Maara as a personification of temptation (i.e. with (iv) above), but we will also briefly examine how the other concepts are sometimes subsumed under this, and how the literary description or the artistic representation of Maara is conditioned by the merger of three separate concepts as well as by the general body of Indian mythology. It has to be noted that Maara is another name for the Indian God of Love, known also as Kaama or Kaamadeva (Lust, or God of Lust), Manmatha (Tormentor of Minds), Ana"nga (Body-less), Kusumaayudha (Flower-weaponed), Pañcabaa.na (Of Five Arrows), and Makaradhvaja (Dragon-flagged).

II. Maara Legends in Canonical Texts   

The Paali Canon includes several accounts attributed to the Buddha himself on his quest for deliverance and these have obviously provided the raw material for the reconstruction of his biography. Among them, the most comprehensive as regards the details of the discipline and training which the Buddha followed is the Mahaasaccaka Sutta of the Majjhima Nikaaya (No. 36). It elaborates the circumstances leading to the renunciation, the Great Departure, as the term Abhinikkhamana is usually translated; the period of studentship under AA.laara Kaalaama and Uddaka Raamaputta; the austerities he practiced for six years; the process of meditation and contemplation and the progressive spiritual attainments; and the final achievement of Enlightenment. The entire statement has a ring of authenticity — a purposeful recollection of the highlights of his life and career. But, as E.J. Thomas has pointed out, "the most remarkable feature in this recital is the entire absence of any temptation by Maara."[10]

The same comment would also apply to the Bhayabherava Sutta (No. 4 of the Majjhima Nikaaya), where the Buddha recounts the doubts and fears which he encountered in the days of his austerities in the forest. Nor does the Dvedhaavitakka Sutta (No. 19) of the same Nikaaya, which analyzes the Buddha's thought process prior to the Enlightenment and how it led to his Enlightenment, digress from the philosophical treatment of the theme to refer to temptations by Maara. Thomas's explanation is "that later authorities put additional events in different places."[11] But a more reasonable explanation, to my mind, is that poetical imagery or allegorization is more the domain of poetry and hence not to be expected in prose sermons. That is precisely why almost all the accounts of Maara's temptations in the Paali Canon are in verse, fully or partially, and the conversations with Maara invariably are recorded in verse.

The most important among them is the Padhaana Sutta in the Sutta-nipaata (vv. 425 ff.) of the Khuddaka Nikaaya. Here, Maara is presented as Namuci and described as a person who approached the striving Bodhisatta speaking kind words (karu.na.m vaaca.m bhaasamaano). The words attributed to him are as follows:

"O you are thin and you are pale,
And you are in death's presence too;
A thousand parts are pledged to death,
But life still holds one part of you.
Live, Sir! Life is the better way;
You can gain merit if you live,
Come, live the Holy Life and pour
Libations on the holy fires,
And thus a world of merit gain.
What can you do by struggling now?
The path of struggling too is rough
And difficult and hard to bear."[12] 

The reply which the Buddha gave Maara has the makings of the entire concept of the allegorization or personification of temptation and psychological conflict. We find here all the ingredients which, in course of time, fired the imagination of countless writers, poets, painters, and sculptors all over Asia for over two millennia.[13]

The Buddha recognizes the speaker of these "kind" words and is conscious of Maara's hidden agenda. So he rebukes him as Pamattabandhu (the Friend of Heedlessness), Paapimaa (the Evil One), and Ka.nha (the Black One). The hosts of Maara are also identified:

"Your first squadron is Sense-Desires,
Your second is called Boredom, then
Hunger and Thirst compose the third,
And Craving is the fourth in rank,
The fifth is Sloth and Torpor
While Cowardice lines up as sixth,
Uncertainty is seventh, the eighth
Is Malice paired with Obstinacy;
Gain, Honor and Renown, besides,
And ill-won Notoriety,
Self-praise and Denigrating Others:
These are your squadrons, Namuci."[14] 

Although the numbering of the "hosts" stops at eight, two more sets are identifiable. Thus the concept of ten "hosts" has also been established. Similarly conceived is Maara riding an elephant (savaahana), which could, of course, mean any ride — elephant, horse, or chariot — and arrayed for war with an army all around (samantaa dhajini.m disvaa).

The Buddha himself announces his readiness to give battle:

"None but the brave will conquer them
To gain bliss by the victory...

Better I die in battle now
Than choose to live on in defeat...

I sally forth to fight, that I
May not be driven forth from my post."[15] 

The Buddha's squadrons, however, are not named; but earlier, in listing the psychological defenses he possessed against Maara's "kind" persuasive words, the Buddha had said:

"For I have faith (saddhaa) and energy (viriya)
And I have wisdom (paññaa) too."

Further to underline the psychological dimension of the battle, as conceived in this context, the Buddha proceeds to tell Maara:

"Your serried squadrons, which the world
With all its gods cannot defeat,
I shall now break with wisdom
As with a stone a clay pot."[16] 

One element, however, is still not evident: Maara does not claim the seat on which the Bodhisatta is seated, and hence the need to call as witness the earth (or the earth-goddess, as the later versions have it) has not arisen. It may, nevertheless, be noted that the Buddha's reply assumes an effort on the part of Maara and his hosts to dislodge him from his position:

"I sally forth to fight, that I
May not be driven from my post
(Maa ma.m .thaanaa acaavayi)."

On the other hand, a further reason is given for the Buddha's determination to fight:

"From land to land I shall wander,
Training disciples far and wide."

This implies a further element in the legends of Maara's temptations, which are found in canonical texts as well as elsewhere relating to the obstacles he had tried to place on the Buddha's advent into his mission as a teacher.

Another pointer in the Padhaana Sutta to other legends is contained in the last three verses, which speak of a later encounter of Maara with the Buddha. Though Chalmers interprets this passage as a statement addressed to the Buddha,[17] the accusative case Gotama.m in verse 24 indicates that it need not be so construed. Here, Maara says:

"For seven years I pursued the Buddha at every step
Yet with the wakeful Buddha I got no chance.
As a crow that hopped around a fat-colored stone
Thinking 'we may find a tender delicacy'
Flies away in disappointment
In disgust I give up Gotama."[18] 

The final verse of the sutta, which tradition assigns to the Buddha but which appears from the contents to be of much later origin than verses 1-20, shows the degree to which the personification of Maara had developed. Here, he is called 'dummano yakkho,' a "disappointed sprite" (N.B. not Vasavatti-Maara, the devaputta) and is said to be so frustrated that his lute drops from his armpit. We shall return later to the implications of this reference to Maara as yakkha.

Altogether absent from the Padhaana Sutta is the episode with the daughters of Maara, who are elsewhere represented as tempting the Buddha with their charms after their father with all his hosts had failed. This story (SN 1 124ff.), along with several others, occurs in the Maara-sa.myutta of the Sa.myutta Nikaaya. The majority of these episodes do not fall within the category of temptations by Maara. They reflect mostly the hostility which Maara had to the Buddha's mission and consist largely of disturbances he had created in different guises — making noises, breaking things, disrupting sermons. It is Maara preventing the people from getting out of his clutches in the sense of escaping from Maaradheyya. These, therefore, do not come in the category of temptations, the topic of this paper.

The Maara-sa.myutta, comprising twenty-five suttas, does contain a number of temptations in which the Buddha or a disciple is involved. Sutta No. 1 (SN I 103) speaks of a moment when Maara became aware of a thought of the Buddha as regards his attainment of Enlightenment and approached him saying:

"You have forsaken the ascetic path
By means of which men purify themselves;
You are not pure, you fancy you are pure,
The path of purity is far from you."[19] 

In another sutta (No. 13, SN I 110), when the Buddha was in pain on account of a foot injury, Maara addressed him in verse:

"What, are you stupefied, that you lie down?
Or else entranced by some poetic flight?
Are there not many aims you still must serve?
Why do you dream away intent on sleep
Alone in your secluded dwelling place?"[20] 

Again, Sutta No. 20 (SN I 116) records an instance when the Buddha was debating in his mind whether it was possible to govern without killing and ordering execution, without confiscating and sequestrating, without sorrowing and inflicting sorrow, in other words, righteously. Maara is said to have approached the Buddha and persuaded him to govern righteously. Apparently, the temptation here was for the Buddha to revert to lay life and resume a royal career so as to rescue those suffering from the cruelty of rulers.[21]

In each of these cases, the Buddha gives an apt reply, which convinces Maara that he has been recognized. Each discovery is concluded with the statement, "Sad and disappointed, Maara vanished."

The Bhikkhu.nii-sa.myutta (SN I 128ff.), in particular, gives ten similar accounts of temptations which bhikkhuniis had experienced in lonely places. Here, too, the statements, attributed to Maara or the bhikkhunii concerned, and often both, are in verse. For example, it was Kisaagotamii who was addressed thus by Maara:

"How now? Do you sit alone with tearful face
As mother stricken by the loss of child?
You who have plunged into the woods alone,
Is it a man that you have come to seek?"[22] 

She gives a reply. Maara knows that he has been found out and — as in the case of all similar episodes — vanishes from the place, unhappy and despondent. (Therigaathaa 182ff., 189, 196ff. contain similar dialogues with Maara.)

Into this same pattern falls the episode narrated in the Mahaavagga of the Vinaya Pi.taka (Vin I 20f.). When the Buddha was alone after he had sent out the first sixty disciples on missions to propagate the doctrine, Maara approached him saying:

"Bound art thou by all the snares,
Both those of devas and of men,
In great bondage art thou bound,
Recluse, you won't be freed from me."

The Buddha bluntly contradicts him and Maara disappears.

The recurring idea behind all these episodes is that doubts, anxieties, and longings which arise in the lonely mind of the Buddha or a disciple are personified as Maara. With a firm resolve, they vanish, and that is what Maara's disappearance signifies.

Very different from all these suttas is the Maaradhiitu Sutta (SN I 124ff.; No. 25), which starts with the story of the Padhaana Sutta and continues to describe how the vanquished Maara "sat down cross-legged on the ground not too far from the Blessed One, silent, dismayed, with shoulders drooping and head down, glum, with nothing to say, scraping the ground with a reed." The way the story is connected with the preceding sutta gives the impression that this incident takes place seven years after the Enlightenment, when all the efforts of Maara to discover the Buddha heedless had failed. The daughters of Maara inquire about their father's despondency and receive the reply:

"An Arahant sublime is in the world;
And when a man escapes from Maara's sphere
There are no wiles to lure him back again
By lust, and that is why I grieve so much."

What follows is pure allegory. The three daughters have apt names: Ta.nhaa (Craving), Arati (Boredom), and Ragaa (Lechery). They conspire and, on the principle that "men's tastes vary," assume forms ranging from those of virgins to mature women. They display wiles by which any ordinary man's "heart would have burst or hot blood would have gushed from his mouth, or he would have gone mad or crazy or he would have shriveled, dried up, and withered like a cut green rush." Unmoved by all their charms and wiles, the Buddha rejects them with a series of well-chosen similes:

"Fools, you have tried to split a rock
By poking it with lily stems;
To dig a hill out with your nails;
To chew up iron with your teeth;
To find a footing on a cliff
With a great stone upon your head;
To push a tree down with your chest."[23] 

What all these Maara legends in the canonical texts establish beyond any doubt is that the allegorization of temptations had commenced very early in Buddhist circles. The imagery of a personified Maara accompanied by a tenfold army and supported by three daughters could even have originated with the Buddha himself. As suggestive imagery, it must have epitomized what most of the Buddha's disciples and followers had subjectively experienced "with wavering faith" when "the sweet delights of home and love, the charms of wealth and power, began to show themselves with attractive colors."[24] While they were perpetuated in poetry, no one took them literally. As Malalasekera says with reference to the Buddha's victory over Maara, "That this account of Buddha's struggle with Maara is literally true, none but the most ignorant of the Buddhists believe, even at the present day."[25]

But that does not mean there had been no confusion. With the four concepts of Maara, outlined in the introduction to this paper, such confusions were quite commonplace. For example, even Buddhaghosa could not distinguish between the allegorical Maara and the Maaradevaputta. With regard to the seven year surveillance of the Buddha by Maara in No. 24 of the Maara-sa.myutta, he says that Maaradevaputta, having failed to see any lapse on the part of the Buddha over this period, came to him and worshipped him. Despite the lack of clarity, Maara was already a full-fledged concept by the time the Paali Canon was completed in its present form.

III. Temptations by Maara in Non-canonical Buddhist Literature   

As the biography of the Buddha came to be presented systematically, temptations by Maara began to figure as a major element in relation to several decisive steps taken by the Buddha. A number of such occasions representing critical points in the career before and immediately after the Enlightenment had been identified by the time the introduction to the Jaataka Commentary was composed.

This introduction, which contains perhaps the oldest continuous life story of the Buddha, mentions six such occasions:

1. At the time of the renunciation, when Maara is represented as trying to persuade the future Buddha to return home on the ground that he would, in seven days, become a universal monarch (cakkavatti mahaaraaja).
2. During the period of austerity, when the future Buddha was in a very weak condition and Maara approached urging him to give up the struggle.
3. On the eve of the attainment of Buddhahood, when Maara is said to have come with his hosts and challenged the future Buddha's right to his seat. This is the occasion of the great victory over Maara symbolizing the Enlightenment.
4. During the fourth week after the Enlightenment, when Maara is presented discouraging the Buddha from preaching: "If you have realized the safe path to immortality, go your way alone by yourself. Why do you want to admonish others?" It is when Maara failed in this effort that his three daughters, Ta.nhaa, Arati, and Ragaa stepped in.[26]
5. Just after the first sixty disciples were sent out on missions, when Maara is shown trying to convince the Buddha that he had really not attained liberation.
6. Just before the Buddha met the thirty Bhaddavaggiya young men, when Maara is presented again as challenging the Buddha's Enlightenment.

It should be noted that other encounters individually described in the Maara-sa.myutta are not included in this list, possibly because they were not connected with any important event or decision in the life of the Buddha. Also to be stressed is the fact that the list is at variance with the information given elsewhere in the Paali Canon.

Not all biographies of the Buddha agree with this list, or with the timing of the encounters, or with the words or actions attributed to Maara. The Lalitavistara, though a later Buddhist Sanskrit work, appears to have been based either on the introduction to the Jaataka Commentary or on an earlier source. As such, the divergences other than in regard to poetic exaggerations and greater emphasis on the supernatural aspects are minimal. One important variation in the Lalitavistara is that "Maara, the wicked one, closely followed the Bodhisattva for six years as he was practicing austerities seeking and pursuing an entrance." Such a long period of surveillance suggests the function of Maaradevaputta (i.e. a living being such as a deity) rather than an encounter explainable in allegorical terms. Another departure is that the daughters of Maara try to tempt the Buddha under the Bodhi-tree, and their names are Rati, Arati, and Tis.naa.[27] Whereas the Paali sources say that the vanquished Maara drew lines on the ground with a stick or a reed, the Lalitavistara states that Maara wrote the words "the ascetic Gotama will escape from my realm."

The version which reveals some very significant departures is the life of the Buddha recorded in the Tibetan texts. As far as Rockhill's selective translation of the relevant material in the Dulva shows, five points have to be noted:

1. Maara has made no effort to dissuade the future Buddha at the time of his renunciation.
2. As the hour of Enlightenment approached, Maara went to the future Buddha saying, "Devadatta has subdued Kapilavastu; he has seized the palace and has crushed the Saakyas." He had also caused apparitions of Yasodharaa, Migajaa,[28] Gopaa, Devadatta, and other Saakyas to appear. What followed was only an argument in which Maara failed to convince the future Buddha. Apparently, the imagery of a great war ending with victory over Maara does not figure in this account.
3. When Maara failed to prevail, his daughters, who are differently named as Desire, Pleasure, and Delight, tried all their allurements in vain.
4. When the Enlightenment was attained, Maara's bow and standard fell from his grasp and all his cohorts, a million and thirty-six thousand in number, fled, filled with dismay.
5. When the Buddha was suffering from a colic after partaking of the honey offered by the two merchants, Maara informs the Buddha that it was time to die. But the Buddha indicates his intention to live until the faith is well founded.[29]

The Chinese Abhiniskrama.na Suutra has a few more variations. For instance, it says that Maara brought a bundle of official notices p