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Arati

Seeing their father disconsolate after his repeated attempts to foil Gotama’s quest for Enlightenment, they offered to tempt the Buddha with their wiles. This was in the fifth week after the Enlightenment. With Māra’s approval, they came to the Buddha in various forms and in various guises, as he sat at the foot of the Ajapala banyan tree, and danced and sang before him. In the end the Buddha told them that he was beyond temptation by the pleasures of the senses and they went back to their father (S.i.124-7; J.i.78-80, 469; DhA.i.201f., iii.196,199; SN.v.835).

In the Saṃyutta Nikāya account, they are said to have asked the Buddha questions regarding himself and his teachings. Aratī’s question was how a man who had already crossed the five floods could cross the sixth. For explanation see KS.i.158, n.3.

Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names • G.P. Malalasekera