Buddhist Lord of the Senses, who repeatedly tempted the Buddha Gautama. When Gautama seated himself under the bodhi tree to await enlightenment, the evil Mara appeared in the guise of a messenger claiming that a rival had usurped the family throne. After sending a storm of rain, rocks, ashes, and darkness to frighten away the gods who had gathered, he challenged Gautama's right to sit beneath the tree and sent forth his three daughters, Trsna, Rati, and Raga (thirst, desire, and delight), to seduce Gautama, but to no avail. After the Buddha had achieved enlightenment, Mara pressed him to abandon any attempt to preach, but the gods successfully persuaded him to preach the law
[in Buddhism: the Destroyer, the Evil One (who tempts man to indulge his passions and is the great enemy of the Buddha and of his religion)], conscious devil or self-existent principle of evil
This term refers to the forces of ignorance that hinder progress on the path of enlightenment Mara is also the personification of these forces, delusion, hatred, desire