The Buddha triumphing over Mara

After many lifetimes of spiritual and intellectual preparation, the Buddha-to-be neared the achievement of enlightenment, and thus of buddhahood, as he sat meditating under a tree. The demon Mara, an embodiment of death, violence, and uncontrolled passions, approached at the head of a monstrous army, intending to put a stop to the enlightenment. Mara and the Buddha-to-be repeatedly challenged each other’s power and past accomplishments. Finally, the Buddha-to-be said,

“ ‘Mara, who is witness to your having given donations?’ Said Mara, ‘All these,’ and he stretched out his hand in the direction of his army. Then Mara said, ‘Who is witness to your having given donations?’ The Buddha-to-be replied, ‘I have no animate witnesses present. However, the great seven-hundred-fold donation I gave in my immediately previous existence will be testified to by the solid earth.’ And drawing forth his right hand from beneath his priestly robe, he stretched it out towards the mighty earth. And the mighty earth thundered, ‘I bear you witness’ with a hundred thousand roars. And the followers of Mara fled away in all directions.”*

This sculpture was made in northeastern India, very near where the encounter with Mara is said to have occurred. Buddha images seated with the right hand reaching down at the knee to touch the earth memorialize the victory of the Buddha-to-be over the forces embodied in Mara and the success in overcoming the last obstacles to attaining buddhahood. The inscription on the base says that the sculpture was donated by the senior monk Prajnaprabha. The inscription on the halo gives the “Buddhist creed”:

The Buddha has explained the cause of all things that arise from a cause. He, the great monk, has also explained their cessation.

When this formula was inscribed on a sculpture it was thought to empower the sculpture as a transmitter of the Buddha’s teaching. For two thousand years a shrine called the Mahabodhi (the “Great Enlightenment”), at Bodhgaya in northeastern India, has marked the exact spot where the Buddha’s victory over Mara and achievement of Enlightenment were thought to have occurred.

*Adapted from Henry Clark Warren’s 1896 translation of an ancient Buddhist text.