Identifier: historyofdevilid00caru (find matches)
Title: The history of the devil and the idea of evil; from the earliest times to the present day
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: Carus, Paul, 1852-1919
Subjects: Devil Demonology Good and evil
Publisher: Chicago : Open Court Pub. Co. London, K. Paul, Trench, Trubner
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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Mara,as the Prince of the world, holding in his clutches thewheel of life, has been preserved, we can learn from acomparison of an old fresco in the deserted caves ofAjanta, Central India,* with Tibetan and Japanese pic-tures of the same subject.t All of them show in thecentre the three causes of selfhood, viz., hatred, spite, andsloth, symbolised in a serpent, a cock, and a pig. Theyare also called the three fires, or the three roots of evil,which are rag-a (passion), doso (sin), 7noho (infatuation). * Described by L. A. Waddell, M. B., M. R. A. 8., in the Journal of the RoyalAsiatic Society, April, 1894. Luxuriously reprpduced in colors on Plate 8, Vol. I.,of The Paintings in the Rtiddhist Cave- Temples of Ajayita, by John GriflSths.London, Griggs, 1896. f The Tibetan and Japanese pictures are explained by Professor Bastian in hisEthnologisches Bilderbiich. BUDDHISM. 12) The Hindu picture exhibits six divisions,—the realm ofgods, the realm of men, the realm of nagas (or snakes) ,*
Text Appearing After Image:
A Tibetan Wheel of Life. (Reproduced from Bastian.) *We must remember that in some parts of India the serpent is the symbol ofperfection and wisdom,—a belief which was adopted by the Ophites, a gnostic sectthat revered the snake of the Garden of Eden as the instructor in the knowledgeof good and evil and the originator of scit nee. 122 THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL. the realm of paradise, tlie realm of ghosts, and the realmof hell. The Tibetan picture shows the same domains,only less distinctly separated, while the Japanese pictureshows only five divisions. In order to show the omni-presence of the Buddha as the principle that sustains alllife, the Japanese picture shows a Buddha statue in thehub, while in the Hindu wheel every division contains aBuddha figure. This Buddha in the world is the Buddhaof transiormsitions, JVzrmana-J^aya, representing the ten-dency of life toward enlightenment. Outside of the wheeltwo other Buddha figures appear. At the right-handcorner there is Buddha, the

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