According to the article by Choong Mun-keat, “A comparison of the Pali and Chinese versions of the Mara Samyutta, a collection of early Buddhist discourses on Mara, the Evil One”, The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies, Vol.10, 2009, pp. 40-41:
“… Before discussing disagreements on some teachings presented in the three versions of the Māra Saṃyukta/Saṃyutta, some shared images of Māra in the literature will be discussed here.
(1) The term Māra-pāpimant/Māro Pāpimā, ‘Māra the Evil One’, in the Pāli Māra Saṃyutta corresponds to Mo/Mowang (魔/魔王) Boxun (波旬) (Skt. Māra-pāpman) in the SA and ASA versions. Māra-pāpimant or Māra (as an individual name) is derived from the term Pāpmā Mṛtyu, ‘Death who is Evil’, of the Brāhmaṇas. Māra is also regarded as a deity in the early Indian cosmological or mythical tradition (O’Flaherty, 1988:213). Thus, Māra is already regarded as both the idea of evil (pāpmā) death (mṛtyu) and a mythical deity in Brahmanism at the time of the Buddha.
(2) Māra in this early Buddhist literature, the three versions of the Māra Saṃyukta, is evidently presented as threefold: (a) he is a real being, an evil deity of temptation (the tempter and lord of sensuality); (b) he can be defeated only in a psychological sense, not by physical force; and (c ) he appears in the texts more as an actual deity than as a result (personification) of psychological projection. Two examples from the texts will now be mentioned and discussed. …
Consequently, for a proper understanding of Māra in the three versions of Māra Saṃyukta, the personal and mythical aspect of Māra should not be entirely ignored, and the impersonal and symbolic aspect of Māra should not be over-emphasized.”