History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c37.58.2

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.