PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

106Pacific WorldOthers are trampled by horses and elephants,legs and arms broken off, stomachs pierced through;some become victims of nẏak, 93 någa-s, and sharks,their blood flowing across the surface of Lady Water andLady Earth.Flood water reaching up to the level of the atmosphere,the dead soldiers of Mårå spread across the earth’s globe,only the king of the asura-s himself remainedwith Father Mountain and Mother Sea.During the time these events unfoldedMårå King of the Asura-s,understood his forces were utterly spentas he watched the horrible suffering of his army 200,000-strong.Fearful he grew that the Lady of Waterwould unleash the flood against his life [too];the asura became soft-hearted toward the Bodh∆,his powerful aggression toward the Teacher all gone.“Please younger brother, I press my hands together in earnestin front of [Father] Mountain and Mother Sea;I will write a sutra enumerating the qualitiesof the Jewel-Lord, the Fully-Enlightened Arahant.”Thus, Prince Mårå, defeated by merit,established respect for the Buddha-gu√a, 94accepted going-for-refuge 95 [as the means] for bringing an end toexistence,and returned to the dwelling-place of the gods. 96This scene in the poem, visually well-known from its many artisticrepresentations in Southeast Asia, 97 presents the final test of the Bodhisatta’ssingle-minded concentration on his goal of purification. Having alreadytried and failed to tempt the Bodhisatta with seductions by his three lovelydaughters, Mårå, who is jealous, has turned to the use of force anddeception to unseat the Buddha from the jeweled throne, even though, asthe poet has him note, “seeing an enemy with merit is very strange indeed.”The last portion of the poem exemplifies conceptions of the two-tieredstructure of power, the intertwining of power and merit, and the nature ofthe world as inexorably shaped by human action. The linking of religiousand royal authority in these passages is quite clearly articulated, first withthe dual possibility of world domination or world renunciation, joined in