Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v2.c31.2742

v2.c31.2742

Māra’s army is described as being tenfold, and each division of the army is described, in very late accounts,³ with great wealth of detail. Each division was faced by the Buddha with one *pāramī* and was put to flight. Māra’s last weapon was the *Cakkāvudha* (*q.v.*). But when he hurled it at the Buddha it stood over him like a canopy of flowers. Still undaunted, Māra challenged the Buddha to show that the seat on which he sat was his by right. Māra’s followers all shouted their evidence that the seat was Māra’s. The Buddha, having no other witness, asked the Earth to bear testimony on his behalf, and the Earth roared in response. Māra and his followers fled in utter rout, and the Devas and others gathered round the Buddha to celebrate his victory. The sun set on the defeat of Māra. This, in brief, is the account of the Buddha’s conquest of Māra, greatly elaborated in later chronicles and illustrated in countless Buddhist shrines and temples with all the wealth of riotous colour and fanciful imagery that gifted artists could command.