>>40705168In Buddhist myth, Mara is also known as "The Evil One," a tempter, through the deceit of regarding the mundane and negative as alluring, and personifies unwholesome impulses, unskillfulness and the "death" of the spiritual life. In many religions that incorporate the cosmology of the Hindu originated Trailokya, Mara is said to sit atop at the Sixth Heaven of the Desire Realm that includes the mortal world, and is said to be both that which ensnares souls in Samsara by deceiving them with promises of happiness in the Desire Realms, and who is the ultimate obstacle of any who desire to achieve enlightenment into nirvana and sunyata.
Feeling threatened by the enlightenment the Buddha was trying to bestow upon humanity, he attacked Gautama Buddha when he was meditating beneath the bodhi tree. He was defeated when the Buddha simply touched the tips of his fingers to the earth, whereupon all the gods descended in a tremendous roar to pay homage to him. Though Mara was defeated that time, he still lingers in the world, hoping to seize the souls of the dying and unenlightened.
Originated in Sri Lankan Buddhism, a demon who was riding Girimehkala with a penis-headed image tried to stop Siddharta Gautama from reaching enlightenment through meditation. The most common story depicts Mara using his beautiful daughters in an attempt to tempt the Buddha; he later marched his demonic army to scare him, however this ended in failure for Mara.
Its manifestation in the series is likely a nod to the metaphor of Devaputra-mara, the disillusion of regarding Mara as an objective being.
Its design is a pun of sorts, as "Mara," is a slang word used by Japanese Buddhist monks for "penis."
