History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c37.58
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c37.58
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v3.c37.58.1
In the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa it is frequently stated that God comes down to earth often for punishing the wicked, for the protection of the good and the establishment of *dharma*.¹⁷²¹ In the Śāntiparva (339. 103-104) the *avatāras* are stated to be ten and they are the same as now accepted except that Haṁsa is mentioned instead of Buddha and Kṛṣṇa is called Sātvata. Among the Purāṇas also several do not mention Buddha as an avatāra. The Mārkaṇḍeya (47. 7) speaks of Matsya, Kūrma and Varāha incarnations and in 4. 53-56 begins with Varāha and mentions Nṛsiṁha, Vāmana and Māthura (i. e. Kṛṣṇa). The Matsya (47. 39-45) speaks of 12 *avatāras*, some of which are different from the usual ones and verse 106 states that Bhṛgu cursed Viṣṇu to be born as a human being seven times, as he killed a woman, viz. his wife. The Matsya-purāṇa (chap. 285. 6-7) mentions the well-known ten avatāras including Buddha and this passage is quoted by Aparārka on p. 338. The Matsya-purāṇa 47. 247 speaks of Buddha as the 9th (avatāra). The Nṛsiṁha-purāṇa chap. 36, the Agni-purāṇa chap. 2 to 16 and the Vārāha-purāṇa 4. 2 enumerate the well-known ten avatāras. The Vṛddha-Hārīta smṛti¹⁷²² (X. 145-146) enumerates ten avatāras, includes Hayagrīva in them (in place of Buddha) and expressly says that Buddha should not be worshipped. In the Rāmāyaṇa (Ayodhyā- kāṇḍa 109. 34) Buddha is reviled as a thief and an atheist.¹⁷²³ This passage may be an interpolation.
v3.c37.58.2
In the Bhāgavatapurāṇa there are three different lists of avatāras at I. 3 (where 22 avatāras occur in which Buddha, Kalkin, Vyāsa, Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa are separately enumerated), II. 7 (where besides the well-known avatāras, Kapila, Dattātreya and others are mentioned), and at VI. 8 Buddha and Kalkin are both mentioned in verse 17.¹⁷²⁴ The Kṛtyaratnākara (pp. 159–160) quotes a passage from the Brahmapurāṇa about a *vrata* on the 7th of the bright half of Vaiśākha where it is stated that Viṣṇu as Buddha started the Śākyadharma and that on the 7th day of Vaiśākha when the moon is in conjunction with the Puṣya constellation, the image of Buddha should be bathed to the accompaniment of sayings of the Śākya and gifts of garments should be made to Śākya ascetics. The same work (pp. 247–248) quotes a passage of the Varāhapurāṇa on the observances of Buddha-dvādaśī, when a golden image of Buddha was to be worshipped and given to a brāhmaṇa. In memoir No. 26 of the Archæological Survey of India, it is stated (p. 5) that in an inscription from South India of about the 7th century A. D. occurs a verse in a mutilated form in which Buddha is enumerated among the ten avatāras (...narasiṁhotha Vāmanaḥ Rāmo Rāmaśca Kṛṣṇaśca Buddhaḥ Kalkī ca te daśa).¹⁷²⁵ From the above discussion it follows that Buddha became in popular view an avatāra of Viṣṇu for the Hindus from about the 7th century A. D.
v3.c37.58.3
Even about that time he was not universally so treated and orthodox writers like Kumārila (who flourished somewhere about 650 to 750 A. D.) did not admit that he was an avatāra. In his Tantravārtika (p. 195 on Jaimini I. 3. 4) Kumārilabhaṭṭa says that the Śākya texts were promulgated by Buddha and others that had strayed from the path of the three Vedas and that acted contrary to the Vedas and asks ¹⁷²⁶ the question "what assurance is there that one, who, himself being a kṣatriya, transgressed the dharma laid down for kṣatriyas and betook himself to the profession of a religious teacher and accepted gifts, would impart instruction in dharma that would not lead to confusion? It has been said 'one should leave at a distance a person who does acts contrary to the other world. How can one who deceives himself confer benefit on another'"? The Bṛhatsaṁhitā of Varāhamihira (60. 19) states the persons who are to hold the office of worshipper in the temples of several deities, viz. the Bhāgavatas for Viṣṇu, the Magas (Śākadvīpīya brāhmaṇas) in temples of the sun, *dvijas* smeared with ashes in Śiva temples, those who know the group of *mātṛs* in the temples of the Mother Goddesses, brāhmaṇas in the temples of Brahmā, Buddhists in the temples of Buddha who was good to all and whose mind was full of peace, naked ascetics in the temples of Jinas; whoever is a devotee of a particular god should worship that god according to the procedure prescribed in his own cult.¹⁷²⁷