Deva (Buddhism) in the context of "Saṃsāra (Buddhism)"

The Jātaka (Sanskrit for "Birth-Related" or "Birth Stories") are a voluminous body of literature native to the Indian subcontinent which mainly concern the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. Jataka stories were depicted on the railings and torans of the stupas. According to Peter Skilling, this genre is "one of the oldest classes of Buddhist literature." Some of these texts are also considered great works of literature in their own right. The various Indian Buddhist schools had different collections of jātakas. The largest known collection is the Jātakatthavaṇṇanā of the Theravada school, as a textual division of the Pāli Canon, included in the Khuddaka Nikaya of the Sutta Pitaka.

In these stories, the future Buddha may appear as a king, an outcaste, a deva, an animal—but, in whatever form, he exhibits some virtue that the tale thereby inculcates. Often, Jātaka tales include an extensive cast of characters who interact and get into various kinds of trouble – whereupon the Buddha character intervenes to resolve all the problems and bring about a happy ending. The Jātaka genre is based on the idea that the Buddha was able to recollect all his past lives and thus could use these memories to tell a story and illustrate his teachings.

Buddhism includes a wide array of divine beings that are venerated in various ritual and popular contexts. Initially they included mainly Indian figures such as devas, asuras and yakshas, but later came to include other Asian spirits and local gods (like the Burmese nats and the Japanese kami). They range from enlightened Buddhas to regional spirits adopted by Buddhists or practiced on the margins of the religion.

Buddhists later also came to incorporate aspects from the countries to which it spread. As such, it includes many aspects taken from other mythologies of those cultures.

In Buddhism, wrathful deities or fierce deities are the fierce, wrathful or forceful (Tibetan: trowo, Sanskrit: krodha) forms (or "aspects", "manifestations") of enlightened Buddhas, Bodhisattvas or Devas (divine beings); normally the same figure has other, peaceful, aspects as well. Because of their power to destroy the obstacles to enlightenment, they are also termed krodha-vighnantaka, "Wrathful onlookers on destroying obstacles". Wrathful deities are a notable feature of the iconography of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, especially in Tibetan art. These types of deities first appeared in India during the late 6th century, with its main source being the Yaksha imagery, and became a central feature of Indian Tantric Buddhism by the late 10th or early 11th century.

Maheśvara (Sanskrit: महेश्वर; Pali: Mahissara; traditional Chinese/Japanese: 大自在天; Pinyin: Dàzìzàitiān, Rōmaji: Daijizaiten) is a deva in Buddhist mythology. He is also sometimes referred to as Sabbalokādhipatī Devā in Pali literature. His main duty is to give spiritual knowledge. Maheśvara is sometimes revered as a bodhisattva. This deity is closely associated with the god Shiva in Hinduism.

Kangiten or Kankiten (Japanese: 歓喜天, "god of bliss"; Sanskrit (IAST): Nandikeśvara), also known as Binayaka (毘那夜迦; Skt. Vināyaka), Ganabachi (誐那鉢底, alternatively Ganahachi or Ganahattei; Skt. Gaṇapati), or more commonly, Shōten or Shōden (聖天, lit. "sacred god" or "noble god"), is a deva (ten) venerated mainly in the Shingon and Tendai schools of Japanese Buddhism.

Although Kangiten (Shōten) in the beginning was (at least at first) negatively portrayed as the creator of obstacles and the leader of a class of malignant demons who obstructed Buddhist practice called vinayakas, though later tradition made an attempt to distinguish between the vinayakas and their lord, who became seen as a manifestation of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Kannon in Japanese) and/or the buddha Vairochana.

The Four Heavenly Kings are four Buddhist gods or devas, each of whom is believed to watch over one cardinal direction of the world. The Hall of Four Heavenly Kings is a standard component of Chinese Buddhist temples.The Four Heavenly Kings (Sanskrit Caturmahārāja, Pali Catu-Mahārāja, Chinese Sì Dà Tiānwáng 四大天王, Japanese Shitennō 四天王) are celestial deities or guardian gods in Buddhist cosmology who preside over the four cardinal directions and protect the Dharma.

Garuda (Sanskrit: गरुड, romanized: Garuḍa; Pali: गरुळ, romanized: Garuḷa) is a Hindu deity who is primarily depicted as the mount (vahana) of the Hindu god Vishnu. This divine creature is mentioned in the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain faiths. Garuda is also the half-brother of the Devas, Gandharvas, Daityas, Danavas, Nāgas, Vanara and Yakshas. He is the son of the sage Kashyapa and Vinata. He is the younger brother of Aruna, the charioteer of the Sun. Garuda is mentioned in several other texts such as the Puranas and the Vedas.

Garuda is described as the king of the birds and a kite-like figure. He is shown either in a zoomorphic form (a giant bird with partially open wings) or an anthropomorphic form (a man with wings and some ornithic features). Garuda is generally portrayed as a protector with the power to swiftly travel anywhere, ever vigilant and an enemy of every serpent. He is also known as Tarkshya and Vainateya.