Kāmadeva in “Padyacūḍāmaṇi of Buddhaghoṣācārya” A Medieval Buddhist Literature on Buddha’s Life

Abstract

This article aims to present Kāmadeva in two prominent roles; that is, as the god of love, and as Māra who tries to drive the Bodhisattva away from his seat under the Bodhi tree, as depicted in “Padyacūḍāmaṇi of Buddhaghoṣācārya”, a Sanskrit Buddhist text on the life of the Buddha like Buddhacarita, Mahāvastu and Lalitavistara. The story is set in the intermediate epoch (avidūrenidāna) and begins with a group of devas ascending to the Tusita heaven to invite the Bodhisattva to be born in the human world. It ends when he is enlightened as a Buddha. Even in this text, some parts of Buddha’s life are missing, but the chapter on the temptations of Buddhisattva by Māra is still the crux of the story. From the study, it was found that Buddhaghoṣācārya, the author, tilizes Kāmadeva, a Hindu mythological deity, to play both explicit and implicit roles throughout the story, by taking two different roles; that is, as the god of love and Māra. This indeed has never appeared in any other Buddhist literature pertaining to the life of Buddha.