¹ Cf. Windisch, Ernst, M–ra und Buddha (Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1895)Google Scholar; Barua, B. M., “Māra,” The Buddhist Review, VII (1915), pp. 194–211Google Scholar; Law, B. C., “The Buddhist Conception of Māra,” Buddhistic Studies, ed. Law, B. C. (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co., Ltd., 1931), pp. 257–283Google Scholar; Masson's, J. chapter on “Māra” in Religion Populaire dans le canon bouddhique Pāli (Louvain: Bureaux du Muséon, 1942), pp. 99–113Google Scholar; de la Vallée Poussin, L., “Māra,” Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, VIII (1955), pp. 406–407Google Scholar; Wayman, Alex, “Studies in Yama and Māra,” Indo-lranian Journal, III (1959), pp. 44 ff., 112 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ling, T. O., Buddhism and the Mythology of Evil (London: George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1962).Google Scholar

² Texts selected for this study are: the Pali Nikāyas of the Suttapiṭaka, the Mahāvastu, Lalita Vistara and Aśvagho⊡a's Buddha-Carita, the A⊡ṭasāhasrika Prajñūpāramitā, Saddharma Puṇḍarika, Nāgārjuna's Mahāprajñāpāramitā sūstra, Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośa and Asaṅga's Srāvakabhūmi.

³ Dialogues of the Buddha, trans. Davids, T. W. Rhys and Davids, C. A. F. Rhys; Sacred Books of the Buddhists (London: Luzac & Co., 1966), pt. II, p. 12Google Scholar; Dīgha-Nikāya, ed. Davids, T. W. Rhys and Carpenter, J. E., Pali Text Society (hereafter PTS) (London: Oxford University Press, 1947), II, p. 15.Google Scholar

⁴ The Book, of the Gradual Sayings, trans. Woodward, F. L. and Hare, E. M., PTS (London: Luzac & Co., 1961), III, p. 22Google Scholar; Aṅguttara-Nikāya, ed. Morris, R. M., Hardy, E., and Davids, C. A. F. Rhys, PTS (London: Oxford University Press, 1955). III, p. 30Google Scholar. In the pali Nikāyas alone there are over 40 appearances of this formula, samārako appearing in addition to samārakam and samārake. It also occurs frequently in the Mahāvastu, the Lalita Vistara and the Saddharma Puṇḍarika Sutra.

⁵ In each of the above examples the translators have rendered the Pali samārakam or samārake in the plural. Grammatically speaking, it is also possible to translate them in the singular, as the endings are accusative singular and locative singular or accusative plural. These endings are determined by their agreement in case and number with loka which is accusative singular in the second example and locative singular in the first. The ending does not necessarily determine the number; hence the legitimate differences in the rendering of this formula phrase by different translators of die Pali texts (cf., e.g., I. B. Horner's translation of samārakam in the singular in The Middle Length Sayings, PTS (London: Luzac & Co., 1954), I, p. 223, and in the plural in II, p. 317). The fact of the matter is there are two types of references to Māra, singular and plural, and the grammar itself does not determine the proper translation of these formula passages, although the analogy of this Māra reference to sadevakam (devas) could suggest that samārakaṃ should also be in the plural. Thus admitting the ambiguity of the grammar, T. O. Ling's thesis that these formula references are singular in number and that there is no other direct evidence in the Canon of a belief in a multiplicity of Māras (Ling, Buddhism, p. 96) is called into question. There is such evidence in die Pali Canon as well as in the Sanskrit tradition as this essay will illustrate. The problem is to determine the meaning of this type of reference.

⁶ A⊡ṭasāhasrikā Prajnāpāramitā (The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Slokas), trans. Conze, E. (Calcutta: Asiatic Society, 1958), chap. XXVIII, pp. 195–196Google Scholar; Ashṭasāhasrikā, ed. Mitra, R. (Calcutta: Asiatic Society, 1888), chap. XXVIII, p. 471Google Scholar. Cf. also chapters XXIV and XXVII, trans, pp. 168, 183, ed. pp. 416, 447.

⁷ The Mahāvastu, trans. Jones, J. J., Sacred Books of the Buddhists (London: Luzac and Co., 1952), II, p. 299Google Scholar, Le Mahāvastu (Texte Sanscrit), ed. E. Senart (Paris: Société Asiatique, 1890), II, p. 319. Jones says this reference is to “Māra's followers.” Cf. also trans. II, p. 363, III, pp. 261, 268, ed. II, p. 408, III, pp. 273, 281.

⁸ The Buddha-Carita of Aśvaghosha, trans. Cowell, E. B., Sacred Books of the East (London: Oxford University Press, 1927), bk. XV, p. 160Google Scholar; The Buddha-Carita of Aśvaghosha, ed. Cowell, E. B. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1893), bk. XV, p. 128Google Scholar. Cf. also Saddharma-Puṇḍarika (The Lotus of the True Law), trans. H. Kern, Sacred Books of the East (London: Oxford University Press, 1909), chap. III, p. 64; Saddharma-Punṇḍarika-Sūtram, ed. U. Wogihara and C. Tsuchida (Tokyo: Seigo-Kenkyūkai, 1934–1935), chap. III, p. 63; and L'Abhidharmakośa de Vasubandhu, trans. L. de la Valée Poussin (Paris: Paul Geudiner, 1923–1926), chap. II, pp. 119–120.

⁹ Le Traité de la Grande Vertu de Sagesse de Nāgārjuna (Mahāprajñāpūramitūśāstra), trans. E. Lamotte (Louvain: Bureaux du Museon, 1944, 1949), I, pp. 339–340. Cf. also I, p. 340, no. 1.

¹⁰ śrāvakabhūmi of Asaṇga, trans, by Alex Way-man in an article “Studies in Yama and Māra.” Indo-Iranian Journal, III (1959), pp. 112–113Google Scholar. Cf. also Wayman's Analysis of the śrūvakabhūmi Manuscript (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961), p. 105Google Scholar; Abhidharmakośa, II, 124; Mahāvastu, trans., III, p. 269, ed., III, p. 281; Saddharma-Puṇḍarika, trans., chap. XIII, p. 275, ed., chap. XIII, p. 247.

¹¹ Cf. L. de la Valleacute;e Poussin, “Cosmogony and Cosmology (Buddhist),” Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. J. Hastings, IV, pp. 129 ff.

¹² “Deva,” Pali-English Dictionary, ed. T. W. Rhys Davids and W. Stede, PTS (London: Luzac and Co., 1959), p. 329 (hereafter PTSD).

¹³ It may also refer to “Mara's followers,” i.e., the host of Māra that attacks the bodhisattva.

¹⁴ Ling, Buddhism, p. 125 suggests “that Māra is an office which is held successively by beings who are of appropriate evil karma. As a personal being Māra has no eternal existence.” Māra is a title; the proper name of the present Māra is not stated in any of the texts.

¹⁵ In the Majjhima Nikāya, Moggallāna, a great disciple of the Buddha, identifies himself as being one and the same Dūsī Māra in a former existence. Moggallāna addresses Māra: Once upon a time, I, Evil One, was the Māra called Dūsin; as such Kālī was the name of my sister, you were her son, thus you were my nephew.

(Bhūtapubbāhaṃ pāpima Dūsī nāma māro ahosiṃ, tassa me Kāḷī nāma bhaginī, tassū tvaṃ putto, so me tvam bhāgineyyo hosi).

The Middle Length Sayings, trans. I. B. Horner, PTS (London: Luzac and Co., 1954), I, p. 396; Majjhima-Nikāya, ed. V. Trenckner, PTS (London: Luzac and Co., 1964), I, p. 333. F. Edgerton (Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Dictionary [1953], “Māra,” p. 430) (hereafter BHSD) notes that in the Ganḍavyūha there is mention of a “Māra named Suvarṇaprabha who tries to interfere with a Bodhisattva named Vimalaprabha in his quest of enlightenment.” This, too, is a reference to a Māra deva who existed in the time of a former Buddha.

¹⁶ I am grateful to Dr. Walpola Rahula for reviewing this article and offering valuable comments. He states that there is no question but that the Buddhist has always understood that there is only one Māra deva in each universe system.

¹⁷ The Book, of the Kindred Sayings, trans. Mrs. Davids, Rhys and Woodward, F. L., PTS (London: Luzac and Co., 1950–1956), I, p. 156Google Scholar; Saṃyutta-Nikāya, ed. Feer, M. Leon, PTS (London: Luzac and Co., 1960), I, p. 124Google Scholar. For the Sanskrit tantri (tṛ⊡ṇā), arati, rati, cf. Buddha-Carita, trans, bk. XV, p. 160, ed. bk. XV, p. 128, and the Mahāvastu, trans. III, p. 274, ed. III, p. 286. Cf. also ragā, arati, tṛ⊡ṇā; Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra, II, pp. 880–881, and n. 1.

¹⁸ Buddha-Carita, trans, bk. XIII, p. 137, ed. bk. XIII, p. 108. Māra also has virtuous sons, Sārthavaha, Janisuta, and Vidyuprati⊡ṭha. Cf., e.g., the Mahāvastu, trans. II, pp. 304–305, 310, ed. II, pp. 327, 330, 337–338; Lalita Vistara, trans, R. Mitra (Calcutta: Asiatic Society, 1886), chap. V, p. 78; Lalita Vistara, ed. S. Lefmann (Halle: Waisenhauses, 1902), chap. V, p. 44.

¹⁹ Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra, II, p. 906.

²⁰ Ibid., II, pp. 907–908. These ten armies of Māra are enumerated exactly in the same order in the Padhāna-sutta of the Satta-Nipāta. The Mahāprajñāramitāśāstra list is based on this canonical text. A more accurate translation of kāma is “sense pleasures,” which is just one aspect of tṛ⊡ṇā, “desire” or “craving”; lābha is more correctly rendered “acquisition.”

²¹ Kindred Sayings, III, p. 160; Saṃyutta-Nikāya, III, p. 195. Cf. also trans. III, pp. 162–163, ed- III, pp. 198–200.

²² Kindred Sayings, IV, p. 19; Saṃyutta-Nikāya, IV, pp. 38–39. PTSD, “Paññatti,” p. 390: “making known, manifestation, description, designation. … “F. L. Woodward (Kindred Sayings, IV, p. 19, n. 3) notes that the commentary explains paññatti as a reference to “the realm of Māra.” The English term “symptoms” is an inadequate translation, Paññatti in this context, according to Dr. Walpola Rahula, means “command” and the question being asked is, essentially, what is the extent of the realm of Māra's command.”

²³ Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra, I, p. 343.

²⁴ Ibid., I, p. 340.

²⁵ Kindred Sayings, III, p. 155; Samyutta-Nikāya, III, p. 187.

²⁶ Windisch, Māra und Buddha, p. 187, says of these two terms: “Die Beziehung des causativen māretā zu Māra ist evident, während yo vā miyati das Wesen bezeichnet, an dem das Sterben zur Erscheinung kommt.”

²⁷ The final formulation of pratitya-samutpāda (Skt.) in terms of the twelve links (or nidānas)is as follows: ignorance (avidyā), karma-formations (saṁskāra), consciousness (vijñāna), name and form (nāmarūpa), six (inner and outer) sense fields (⊡aḍ-āyatana), contact (sparśa), feelings (vedanā), craving (tṛ⊡ṇā), grasping (upādanā), becoming (bhava), birth (jāti), decay and death (jarāmaraṇa).

²⁸ More specifically, whereas maccu (Skt. mṭtyu) indicates “death itself,” “Māra is the nomen actoris to the causative mārayati,” according to Windisch, Māra und Buddha, pp. 185–186. Etymologically, therefore, Māra means the one who kills or causes death. Cf. also PTSD, “Māra,” p. 530; Williams, Monier, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1872), “mara,” p. 811 c (hereafter, MWSD).Google Scholar

²⁹ The two terms Māra and maccu (mṛtyu) are used in apposition, e.g., in Middle Length Sayings, I, p. 279; Majjhima-Nikāya, I, p. 227; Buddha-Carita, trans, bk. XIII, p. 138, ed. bk. XIII, p. 109. Māra's army is called maccusenā (hosts of death), (cf., eg., Kindred Sayings, I, p. 152; Saṃyutta-Nikāya, I, p. 122) and Māra himself is given the title maccurāja (King of Death). Cf., e.g., The Dhammapada, trans. Radhakrishnan, S. (London: Oxford University Press, 1954), pp. 74–75Google Scholar; The Dhammapada, ed. Thera, S. Sumangala, PTS (London: Oxford University Press, 1914), p. 46.Google Scholar

³⁰ PTSD, “Antaka,” p. 47. For the use of this epidiet as applied to Māra see especially the Māra suttas: Kindred Sayings, I, pp. 129–133; Saṃyutta-Nikāya, I, pp. 103–106; also, Mahāvastu, trans. III, p. 417, ed. III, p. 416.

³¹ Cf. J. J. Jones, Mahāvastu, III, p. 261, no. 3. Ling, Buddhism, pp. 66 ff, cites the lack of several distinct legends about a plural number of Maras as evidence for his interpretation of the Mara symbol representing a “monistic understanding of the demonic.”

³² That the numerical reference is “four” in the selected texts is not of significant importance in itself. The Pali commentary tradition often refers to 5 Māras: kilesāmāra, khandhāmāra, maccumāra, devaputtamāra and abhisaṃkhāramāra. Cf. F. Ed- gerton, BHSD, “Māra,” p. 430; G. P. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pali Proper Names (1960), “Māra,” II, pp. 611 ff.; R. C. Childers, Dictionary of the Pali Language (1909), “Māra,” pp. 240–241. Abhisaṃkhāra means “performance of action” and has to do with the accumulation of karma (cf. PTSD, Abhisankhāra,” p. 70), hence is simply a broader reference for that which is designated in the Buddhist Sanskrit tradition by kleśamāra, namely the internal aspect of māretā. References in both the Pali and Sanskrit traditions range from one, three, four to five of the above mentionel Māras. Edgerton says that there is sometimes reference to a sixth Māra, but apparently he has in mind not an additional name to be added to the formula phrase, but the name of a previous Mara deva, Suvarṅaprabha, of the same status as Dūsī Māra, Cf. above, p. 66, n. 15.

³³ According to S. Levi in an article titled “Devaputra,” Journal Asiatique, CCXXIV (Janvier–Mars, 1934), 1–21Google Scholar, the term devaputra in Buddhist literature took on the meaning of a reference simply to a male deva, and lost any special sense derived from its grammar, i.e., “son of god(s).” PTSD, “Deva,” p. 330, says that the Pali devaputta refers to yakkhas but also is applied “to the four archangels having charge of the higher world,” i.e., Yāmā, Tusitā, Nimmānaratī and Paranimmitavasavattī. Edgerton (BHSD, “deva,” p. 270) renders both terms deva and devaputra as “god” and treats them as synonyms.

³⁴ Wayman, Studies, p. 113; Analysis, p. 105.

³⁵ Wayman, Analysis, p. 105.

³⁶ In the literature selected for this study there is complete identification of pāpimā and Māra. In the Majjhima-Nikāya, I, 332, e.g., Moggallāna says to Māra, “You, Evil One, are Māra” (Māro tvamasi pāpimä); Middle Length Sayings, I, 396.

³⁷ Gradual Sayings, I, p. 133; Aṇguttara-Nikāya, I, p. 150. The term jātikkhaya essentially means “the destruction of the chance of being reborn.” Cf. PTSD, Jātikkhaya,” pp. 281–282.

³⁸ A Concise Etymological Sanskrit Dictionary (Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, 1962), p. 255.Google Scholar

³⁹ PTSD, “Pāpa,” p. 453. According to Windisch, the term pāpmā in older Sanskrit literature signifies “not only the morally bad, but more objectively, misfortune, sorrow and pain. … ” Cf. Māra und Buddha, p. 192.

⁴⁰ Staat und Gesellschaft im Alten Indien (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1957), pp. 32 ff., 61. I am debted to Dr. Mahinda Palihawadana for these references to Rau and Mayrhofer.

⁴¹ Evil is an accepted rendering of pāpa; cf., e.g., PTSD, “Pāpa,” p. 453; MWSD, “pāpa,” p. 618b; Windisch, Māra und Buddha, p. 192.

⁴² Cf. Webster's New International Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1958.

⁴³ For example, L'Abhidharmakosś de Vasubandhu, chap. III, p. 41, recalls that “le Mära nommé Dū⊡in [, ayant frappé la tête de Vidura, Ie discipleè de Krakucchanda,] tomba, avec son corps même, dans le grand enfer Avīci.”

⁴⁴ Cf. above, pp. 66–67.

⁴⁵ Middle Length Sayings, I, pp. 397–398; Majjhima-Nikāya, I, p. 334: (akkosanti paribhās-anti rosenti vihesenti).

⁴⁶ Kindred Sayings, I, p. 146, Saṃyutta-Nikāya, I, p. 116 (kāmesu namati).

⁴⁷ Kindred Sayings, I, pp. 137–138; Samyutta-Nikāya, I, p. 110 (vicakkhukamma); Mahāvastu, trans. III, p. 417; ed. III, p. 416 (vicaksukarma).

⁴⁸ Wayman, Studies, pp. 112–113 (antarāyamupasaṃharati).

⁴⁹ Buddha-Carita, trans., bk. XIII, pp. 142–143, ed., bk. XIII, pp. 111–112.

⁵⁰ Ibid.

⁵¹ Mahāvastu, trans., II, p. 367, ed., II, pp. 413–414.

⁵² The reason Māra is so named and not called Kāmādhipati (Lord of sense desire) as the heretics call him, says Nāgārjuna, is due to the fact that his chief characteristic is that of destroying all good works and removing bhikkhus from the path. Māra is known as the “thief of saints” āryacaura). Cf. Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra, I, p. 345.

⁵³ Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra, I, p. 345.

⁵⁴ Cf. above, pp. 66–67.

⁵⁵ Cf. above, p. 70, n. 32.

⁵⁶ Cf., also, King, W. L., “Myth in Buddhism: essential or peripheral?”, Journal of Bible and Religion, 29 (July, 1961), pp. 211–218.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Ling, Buddhism, p. 77.

⁵⁸ Papancasūdani Majjhimanikāyatthakatha of Buddhaghosacariya (London: Oxford University Press, 1928), I, 137.Google Scholar