95. The daughters of Mara attempt to seduce the Bodhisattva
Then Mara, the Evil One, spake unto his daughters: "Go now, ye maidens, to Bodhiman. da and tempt the Bodhisattva, if he be subject to passion or free therefrom, if he be wise or foolish, blind or quick sighted, faithful to his resolve, weak or strong". Hearing these words these apsaras betook themselves to Bodhiman. d. a, where the Bodhisattva was, and they came before him and displayed the two and thirty kinds of female allurement. And what are those two and thirty? These following: some veiled the half of their face, others uncovered their firm round breasts, others etc. etc.
But not with all their ten thousand arts of rousing desire could they tempt the Sugata with the mien of a young elephant. Then spake the daughters of Mara these verses unto their father: "The female allurements, father, that have been spread before him, that should have bent his heart to passion, not one moment on seeing these was his mind moved; as the king of the mountains he remained firm. (320: 1; 329: I 1; 330 9, 18).
The Bodhisattva is still sitting in bLumisparga on a plain seat with makara-back and the tree spread above him; the grass is not there, he has a lotus cushion again. On both sides, Mara's daughters are displaying their enticements. On the right two are dancing, while as is often the case, an old gentleman dressed like a brahman beats time with a pair of bells; several other women are here standing and kneeling, some of them with similar bells, and one in the corner has some drums to make up the music. On the left, in front, one of the daughters seated, makes a respectful sembah; still more stand behind with flowers in their hands. The Bodhisattva, as behaves him, takes no notice of it all. Quite on the left the defeat of their effortsis teeing announced; Marain ordinary godlike costume sits quite dejected under a tree, his sittingmat laid on the knees of some of his daughters who kneel there, evidently telling him their tale of disappointment 1).
As I mentioned by the last relief, the temptation scene is often combined with the attack of Mara's army. Probably representations like that at Amaravat~ belong to this same sort, where according to what the Old-Indian art dictated, the throne under the tree is empty and only the footprints of the Master indicate his presence; what is going on seems quite clear froIn the female figures next to the throne and the misshapen monsters coming and going in front of it
2). At other places the Bodhisattva himself is depicted but the design remains the same3). Sarnath gives the same combination in a rather different form. The example at Ajanta is remarkable 4); while the future Buddha sits in the middle, the upper part of the scene is given up to the attack; the monsters advance from the left (most of them with heads of animals and faces on the belly) with Mara on his elephant, and they disappear with their master on the right. Below this stands left the Evil One with bow and arrows, giving instructions to his daughters, and more to the right, they are standing and dancing, but in the righthand corner Mara sits vanquished and dejected on the ground just as at Barabudur, with some of his daughters round him after their defeat. On a South-Indian relief at Ghantac,ala 1) the same scene can be recognised 2); the throne has only a cushion on it and the old tradition Dosso far followed;but for the rest we see just as at A3anta in the upper half, Mara and his troops attacking and retreating, while below on the left, Mara is encouraging his daughters and the dancing is going on on the right. The disheartened figure of Mara is not there, so it is important to notice that Ajanta and Barabudur in contrast to others, agree in this point. At Pagan only the dance is given3); in Gandhara the scene is represented too with Mara and his daughters already present when the Bodhisattva arrives4).The Bodhisattva's reflections that follow in the text are of course passed over by the sculptor, who at once comes to their conclusion.