Mara

The Mara was an entity created from the evil in the minds of people of the planet Manussa in the Scrampus system and given independent life via the Great Crystal. In physical form, it manifested as a giant snake or as a snake-shaped mark on the arm.

Early history
An alternative explanation said that that Mara originated in the "Dark Places of the Inside". (DW: Kinda) The Mara led the Sumaran Empire centered on Manussa. (DW: Snakedance) It existed in the minds of its victims and can transfer itself in the form of a tattoo-like mark, to those who yielded to it. It was so evil that it cannot bear the sight of its own reflection. In the Dark Places of the Inside, it manifested (or manifested) as Dukkha, Anatta and Annica. (DW: Kinda)

On Manussa, the Mara was defeated and driven out by an ancestor of the future Federator and cast into the "dark places beyond". (DW: Snakedance)

Later history
On the planet Deva Loka, the Mara possessed several of the Kinda tribe. When the Doctor's companion Tegan Jovanka fell asleep on Deva Loka, the Mara possessed her through her unconscious. Using Tegan's body, the Mara sought to create chaos by pushing the Kinda to attack the Earth force on the planet. The Doctor used a circle of mirrors to make the Mara face itself and therefore make it leave Tegan and be banished once more. (DW: Kinda)

The Mara was not entirely banished from Tegan and forced her to return to Manussa. It planned to recorporalise itself using the Great Crystal, but the Doctor once more defeated it by smashing the Great Crystal. (DW: Snakedance)

Minor references

 * Jack Harkness mentioned an alternate name for fairies: Mara. (TW: Small Worlds)
 * Whether this indicates a connection remains unknown.


 * The tenth incarnation of the Doctor mentions the Mara to his fifth incarnation when they met. (DW: Time Crash)

Mythology
Writer Christopher Bailey derived a demon from Buddhist mythology which, as in Doctor Who, symbolizes temptation. (In Kinda, Dukkha, Panna, Karuna, Anatta and Annica's names and functions all derive from Buddhism as well.) Kinda have names and functions derived from Buddhism.) The "Mara" mentioned in the Torchwood episode Small Worlds (quite possibly a deliberate reference to the Doctor Who Mara) comes from Northern European mythology. The word "nightmare" comes from there.

Production
According to interviews with Bailey in Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text, the Mara in Kinda used temptation to behave in culturally disapproved-of ways. In Tegan's case, sensuality (or even sexuality), in Aris's case, aggression, which the Kinda regarded as abhorrent, especially when enacted by a male. Bailey did not welcome the addition of un-subtle indications of possession by the Mara, indicated by special effects, feeling instead that the acting of Janet Fielding, who played Tegan, and others, put the point across more than adequately. He particularly disliked the imagery of glowing red eyes which, he said, seemed to hark back to the Christian notion of the Devil.

Though Kinda and Snakedance have a great deal of respect among fans, Mara's appearance as a very unrealistic giant snake (especially in Kinda has often gotten cited as an example of Doctor Who's budget letting it down.