History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c90.25.4

v7.c90.25.4

countries and measures of time are intended to facilitate worldly transactions and astronomical needs and are based on actual perception, mathematics, tradition and inference. The narration of what will happen in the future is based on the Veda, since it conveys knowledge of the variety of the ripening of the consequences of (complying with) *dharma* and of *adharma* and knowledge of the characteristics of *yugas* that have been in operation from time immemorial.' It is clear from this passage that the Itihāsa and the Purāṇas that Kumārila knew contained stories, geography of the earth, dynastic lists, measures of time and description of what will happen in the future. These are matters dealt with in the extant Purāṇas. On Jaimini I 3.7 Kumārila observes: 'In the Purāṇas¹³⁴⁵ it is narrated that in the Kali age there will arise Śākya (Gautama Buddha) and others that will cause confusion about *dharma*, who would listen to their words?' This shows that before the 7th century A. D. the Purāṇas contained descriptions of the nature of Kaliyuga and that the Purāṇas Kumārila knew did not regard Buddha as an *avatāra* of Viṣṇu, but rather condemned him. From the facts that Kṣemendra composed his Daśāvatāracarita in 1066 A. D, that Aparārka (on p 338) quotes a long passage from the Matsya chapter 285, verse seven of which enumerates the ten avatāras of Viṣṇu (including Buddha), and that the Gītagovinda of Jayadeva regards Buddha as an avatāra, it follows that before 1000 A. D.