The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.s1.326.4

v2.c17.s1.326.4

In his notes on the second passage he adds, 'in the ordinary native pictures of the *avatāras* of Viṣṇu, the ninth *avatāra*, (Bauddha avatāra) is represented by a figure of Jagannātha. I have failed to ascertain from pandits any explanation of this. In the *Viṣṇu Purāṇa*, Viṣṇu is represented as becoming incarnate in the person of Buddha, for purposes of illusion; a convenient artifice of the Brahmans to dispose of all difficulties attending the popularly admitted supernatural character of Śākya; but this does not explain the circumstance of Jagannātha being regarded as typifying the Bauddha avatāra. The circumstance would seem to indicate an under-current of popular tradition which had survived the changes of national religion and all the efforts of the priesthood to suppress it'⁸⁶.