Note 9 — Chapter XXV · VAIŚÂLÎ. THE TOPE CALLED ‘WEAPONS LAID DOWN.’ THE COUNCIL OF VAIŚÂLÎ.

‘The king of demons.’ The name Mâra is explained by ‘the murderer,’ ‘the destroyer of virtue,’ and similar appellations. ‘He is,’ says Eitel, ‘the personification of lust, the god of love, sin, and death, the arch-enemy of goodness, residing in the heaven Paranirmita Vaśavartin on the top of the Kâmadhâtu. He assumes different forms, especially monstrous ones, to tempt or frighten the saints, or sends his daughters, or inspires wicked men like Devadatta or the Nirgranthas to do his work. He is often represented with 100 arms, and riding on an elephant.’ The oldest form of the legend in this paragraph is in ‘Buddhist Suttas,’ Sacred Books of the East, vol. xi, pp. 41–55, where Buddha says that, if Ânanda had asked him thrice, he would have postponed his death.