Publisher's Synopsis
The early Buddhist texts introduce us to a being called M ra who appears at critical junctures of the Buddha's career in order to deflect him from his mission. M ra is the Buddhist counterpart of Satan and represents the inseparable union of Desire and Death. The paper examines the various records of the Buddha's encounters with M ra in his role as the Tempter. Ananda W.P. Guruge is a retired Sri Lankan diplomat and a scholar in the fields of Indology and Buddhist Studies. He is the author of over thirty books, the most recent a complete translation of the Sinhalese chronicle (The Mah va sa) and a biography of King Asoka.
