murder in any form, trampling under foot even her own husband. There is scarcely a village without a temple devoted to her, and her images can be seen in thousands of forms. Her appearance is

After an Indian picture. (Reproduced from Schlagintweit.)

pleasant only as Pârvatî, in all other shapes she is frightful, and we can perfectly well understand that among Buddhists her divinity changed into the awful features of a demon of evil.

MARA, THE ENEMY OF BUDDHA.

In the life of Buddha, Mâra plays an important part. He is that principle which forms an obstacle to the attainment of Buddhahood. Having told how, in the sight of the great renunciation,

Indian sculpture. (Reproduced from Schlagintweit.)

the deity of the gate opened it to let the future Buddha out, the Jataka continues:

"At that moment Mâra came there with the intention of stopping the Bodisat; and standing in the air, he exclaimed, 'Depart not, O my lord! in seven days from

now the wheel of empire will appear, and will continents and the two thousand adjacent isles.

make you sovereign over the four Stop, O my lord!"

When Buddha, in his search for enlightenment, had tried for seven years to find the right path in asceticism and self-mortification, his health began to give way and he was shrunken like a withered branch. At this moment Mâra drew near and suggested to him the thought of giving up his search for enlightenment. We read in the Padhâna Sutta1:

Came Namuche speaking words full of compassion : Thou art lean, illfavored, death is in thy neighborhood. Living life, O thou Venerable One, is better! Living, thou wilt be able to do good works. Difficult is the way of exertion, difficult to pass, difficult to enter upon.'

"To Mâra, thus speaking, Bhagavat said: 'O thou friend of the indolent, thou wicked one, for what purpose hast thou come here? Even the least good work is of no use to me, and what good works are required ought Mâra to tell? I have faith and power; and understanding is found in me. While thus exerting myself, why do you ask me to live? While the flesh is wasting away the mind grows more tranquil, and my attention, understanding, and meditation becomes more steadfast. Living thus, my mind does not look for sensual pleasures. Behold a being's purity!

"Lust thy first army is called; discontent thy second; thy third is called hunger and thirst; thy fourth desire; thy fifth is called sloth and drowsiness; thy sixth cowardice; thy seventh doubt; thy eighth hypocrisy and stupor, gain, fame, honor, and what celebrity is falsely obtained by him who exalts himself and despises others. This, O Namuche, is thine, the Black One's fighting army. None but a hero conquers it, and whoever conquers it obtains joy. Woe upon life in

this world! Death in battle is better for me than that I should live defeated.

"Seeing on all sides an army arrayed and Mâra on his elephant, I am going out to do battle that he may not drive me from my place. This army of thine which the world of men and gods cannot conquer, I will crush with understanding, as one crushes an unbaked earthen pot with a stone.

"Having made my thoughts subject to me and my attention firm, I shall wander about from kingdom to kingdom training disciples extensively. They will be zealous and energetic, obedient to the discipline of one free from lust, and they will go to the place where there is no mourning.

"And Mâra said: For seven years I followed Bhagavat, step by step, but found no fault in the Perfectly Enlightened and Thoughtful One.'"

1 Sacred Books of the East, Vol. X., second part, pp. 69–71.

When Buddha went to the Bo-tree Mâra, the Evil One, proposed to shake his resolution, either through the allurements of his daughter or by force. "He sounded the war cry and drew out for battle." The earth quaked, when Mâra, mounted on his elephant, approached the Buddha. The gods, among them Sakka, the king of the Gods, and Brahma, tried to stay Mâra's army, but none of them was able to stand his ground, and each fled straight before him. Buddha said:

'Here is this multitude exerting all their strength and power against me alone. My mother and father are not here, nor my brother, nor any other relative. But I have these Ten Perfections, like old retainers long cherished at my board. It therefore behooves me to make the Ten Perfections my shield and my sword, and to strike a blow with them that shall destroy this strong array. And he remained sitting, and reflected on the Ten Perfections."-Buddhism in Translations. By H. C. Warren, pp. 77-78.

Mâra caused a whirlwind to blow, but in vain; he caused a rain-storm to come in order to drown the Buddha, but not a drop wetted his robes; he caused a shower of rocks to come down, but the rocks changed into bouquets; he caused a shower of weapons -swords, spears, and arrows-to rush against him, but they became celestial flowers; he caused a shower of live coals to come down from the sky, but they, too, fell down harmless. In the same way hot ashes, a shower of sand, and a shower of mud, were transmuted into celestial ointments. At last he caused a darkness, but the darkness disappeared before Buddha as the night vanishes before the sun. Mâra shouted: “Siddhattha, arise from the seat. It does not belong to you. It belongs to me." Buddha replied: "Mâra, you have not fulfilled the ten perfections. This seat does not belong to you, but to me, who have fulfilled the ten perfections." Mâra denied Buddha's assertion and called as witnesses, while Buddha declared: “ nesses present;" but, stretching out his right hand towards the mighty earth, he said: "Will you bear me witness?" And the mighty earth thundered: "I bear you witness." And Mâra's elephant fell upon its knees, and all the followers of Mâra fled away in all directions. When the hosts of the gods saw the army of Mâra

upon his army

'I have no animate wit