Introduction
Buddha is named as the ninth of the ten avatars of Vishnu in the standard Dashavatara list. This article is about that Puranic idea only. It is separate from the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, and from the Buddhist understanding of him, and Buddhists do not regard the Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu.
Avatars (avataras, "descents") are the forms in which Vishnu is said to come to the world when dharma is in decline. The idea is stated in the Bhagavad Gita (4.7 to 4.8), where Krishna says that he takes birth in every age to protect the good, destroy the wicked and restore dharma. The most widely accepted list, the Dashavatara, has ten avatars: Matsya (fish), Kurma (tortoise), Varaha (boar), Narasimha (man-lion), Vamana (dwarf), Parashurama, Rama, Krishna, Buddha and Kalki. Other lists exist, for example with Balarama in place of Buddha, and the Bhagavata Purana speaks of twenty-two avatars and says they are innumerable. The Dashavatara is the subject of many temples and works of art, from the rock-cut reliefs of Ellora (the Dashavatara cave) and Mahabalipuram, to Jayadeva's twelfth-century poem the Gita Govinda, which opens with a hymn to the ten avatars.
Family
- Incarnation of: Vishnu
Sources
The Buddha appears in the lists of avatars in several Puranas, including the Bhagavata Purana, the Vishnu Purana, the Matsya Purana and the Agni Purana, from roughly the middle of the first millennium CE. The Bhagavata Purana (1.3.24) describes him as the son of Jina, born in Kikata, who will bewilder the enemies of the gods. In the Vishnu Purana (3.17 to 3.18), Vishnu creates a deluding figure who persuades demons to abandon the Vedic path, and so lose their power.
Other lists
Some lists of the Dashavatara have Balarama in place of the Buddha, with Krishna as the ninth. The Gita Govinda of Jayadeva (twelfth century) includes a hymn to Buddha, praising the compassion that condemns animal sacrifice.
Interpretations
Scholars have offered several explanations. One is that the inclusion of the Buddha shows the absorption of a rival tradition into Vaishnavism. Another is that the Buddha stood for the dissolution of ritualism in favour of devotion. Buddhists reject the idea, and some Hindu thinkers have distinguished the Puranic Buddha from the historical Buddha. The Indian reformer B. R. Ambedkar was among those who rejected the claim.
In practice
In parts of Odisha, some traditions identify Jagannath with Buddha. Many Hindu pilgrims at Bodh Gaya venerate the Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu, while Buddhists hold it to be the site of his enlightenment.
Meaning
The idea reflects the long interaction of Hindu and Buddhist traditions in India, and the Puranic effort to incorporate other religious movements.