Marici (Buddhism)

Mārīcī
Marici is a Buddhist deity, once popular among the warrior class in China, Korea and Japan; her earliest icons are found in northeast Andhra Pradesh (5th to 7th century, above) and Tibet.
Sanskrit	मारीची Mārīcī
Chinese	摩利支天 (Pinyin: Mólìzhītiān)
Japanese	摩利支天（まりしてん） (romaji: Marishiten)
Korean	마리지천 (RR: Marijicheon)
Tagalog	Malici
Thai	มารีจี
Tibetan	འོད་ཟེར་ཅན་མ་ Wylie: 'od zer can ma THL: Özerchenma
Vietnamese	Ma Lợi Chi Thiên
Information
Venerated by	Mahāyāna, Vajrayāna (Mārīcī Sūtra) (Mārīcī Dhāraṇī Sūtra)
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Mārīcī (Sanskrit: मारीची, lit. 'Ray of Light'; Chinese: 摩利支天; pinyin: Mólìzhītiān; Japanese: Marishiten) is a Buddhist deity (deva), as well as a bodhisattva associated with light and the Sun. By most historical accounts Mārīcī is considered a goddess, but in some regions she is depicted as a male god revered among the warrior class in East Asia.^[1] Mārīcī is typically depicted with multiple arms, riding a charging boar or sow, or on a fiery chariot pulled by seven horses or seven boars. She has either one head or between three and six, with one shaped like a boar. In parts of East Asia, in her fiercest forms, she may wear a necklace of skulls. In some representations, she sits upon a lotus.^[1][2][3]

Some of the earliest iconographies of Marici are found in India and Tibet, particularly near the ancient port city and Buddhist site Salihundam of Andhra Pradesh, where Māricī is depicted as riding on a chariot pulled by seven horses in a manner similar to Surya (sun deity with goddesses Usha and Chaya).^[1] In Mahayana Buddhist texts, Marici is the goddess of dawn, one introduced by the Buddha at Shravasti. In some aspects, she is comparable to, and likely a fusion deity derived from the feminine version of, Surya and, in other ways, to Usha, Durga, and Vajravārāhī.^[1][2] She is one of the goddesses (or gods) invoked in Buddhist dharanis.^[3]

In Tibetan Buddhism, she is depicted as the goddess of dawn or light, a healer, or the one who seeks enlightenment of all beings. In Japanese Buddhism, she is depicted as a warrior goddess – the protector of the bushi or Samurai and their passion for justice. Alternatively, she is also a healer from the wrong state to the right state of existence.^[1][2]

In Chinese Buddhism, she is among the lists as one of the guardian devas, specifically the Sixteen Devas (Chinese: 十六諸天; pinyin: Shíliù Zhūtiān), the Twenty Devas (Chinese: 二十諸天; pinyin: Èrshí Zhūtiān) and the Twenty-Four Devas (Chinese: Chinese: 二十四諸天; pinyin: Èrshísì Zhūtiān). In Taoism and Chinese folk religion, Doumu (Chinese: 斗母元君; pinyin: Dǒumǔ Yuánjūn) is considered to be synonymous with Mārīcī within Chinese Esoteric Buddhism.

Upon her discovery by the western world, colonial-era writers such as Giorgi conjectured on phonetic grounds that she might have been copied from or inspired by the Christian concept of the Virgin Mary after the earliest Spanish travelers reached the Philippines. However, this conjecture was rejected following the discoveries of numerous older artworks and texts.^[1]