Hariti- Buddhist DemonDemon"Mother of Demons"

The Child-Eating Demoness

Hariti haunted the city of Rajagriha. She had given birth to five hundred children, and to feed her vast brood, she preyed upon the city's human children. Night after night she stole them from their mothers, and each morning new families woke to unbearable grief. No locked door or guard could stop her.

The Buddha's Intervention

The desperate citizens appealed to the Buddha. Rather than destroy Hariti, he went to her dwelling while she was away and hid her youngest and most beloved son, Priyankara, beneath his begging bowl. When Hariti returned and found her child missing, she searched the world in a frenzy: heaven and hell, all continents and realms. She could not find him. Finally she came to the Buddha and begged for help.

The Buddha asked how she felt at the loss of just one of her five hundred children. Her grief was unbearable, she said. The human mothers she had robbed suffered the same anguish, the Buddha replied, and most of them had only one or two children. For the first time, Hariti understood. The Buddha revealed her son safe beneath his bowl, and Hariti took refuge in the Three Jewels and vowed never to harm another child.

From Demon to Protector

The Buddha solved the practical problem of feeding Hariti's brood by instructing that offerings be made to her at monasteries. To this day, a portion of food is set aside for Hariti before meals in many Buddhist traditions. In return, she became one of the fiercest protectors of the dharma and of children. Where she once brought death to the young, mothers now pray to her for safe births and their children's health.

Kishimojin

In Japan, where she is known as Kishimojin, Hariti is depicted in flowing robes, holding a pomegranate and sometimes a child. The pomegranate has its own story: the Buddha recommended she eat pomegranates instead of children, since the fruit's many seeds and blood-red juice could stand in for human flesh. Its hundreds of seeds also mirror her hundreds of offspring.