Ep. 145: The Reformation of Hariti
How a child-eating demon became a mother goddess
When you enter the Main Hall in some Chinese Buddhist temples, you may see a rather fantastic aggregation of twenty-four figures. Some may be familiar--the Four Heavenly Kings, for example, or Weituo--but others are quite strange. The Devas--Sanskrit for "gods"--are temple protectors, and come mainly from India. Indeed, included in the assemblage are forms of the originally-Hindu gods and goddesses Brahma, Shiva, Indra, Lakshmi, and Saraswati, among others. Each extended his or her influence beyond Hinduism into the Buddhist sphere, and each is honored--even those who began as rather unsavory characters . . .