Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Archana Sharma ¹

Affiliations
1 A.I.H.C. and Archaeology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-05, IN

Abstract

According to the Dictionary of Pali Proper Names 'Mara' is generally regarded as the personification of Death, the Evil one, the Tempter (The Buddhist counterpart of Devil or Principal of Destruction). In Sanskrit one meaning of the word 'Mara' is killing. Due to this meaning some scholars believes that 'Mara' is a God of death in Brahmanical tradition too and is also known as 'Yama'. But in Sanskrit-Hindi dictionary Apte refers the other interpretation of 'Mara' as Kamadeva. We also get this signification of Mara in Sanskrit Buddhist tradition. So it would be very interesting to compare the concept of Mara in Buddhist and Brahmanical tradition.

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