Daughters of the demon Mara

As the Buddha-to-be meditated on his spiritual path to Enlightenment, the demon Mara, a symbol of evil and death, unleashed not only his brutish army to overcome him by force but also his daughters to turn the Buddha-to-be away from his spiritual goal by seduction. This glazed terra-cotta plaque showing Mara’s daughters is from a set intended for a fifteenth-century temple in southern Myanmar. We see two daughters bedecked in jewelry, and the inscription tells us they have assumed the form of women who have not yet had children. Are they performing a seductive dance, as they seem to be doing in a painting nearby (no. 63)—or some other sort of movement?