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Buddha
Member of Dashavatara
Buddha incarnation of Vishnu, from Sunari, Medieval period
Other names	Siddhartha Gautama, Mayamoha
Devanagari	बुद्ध
Affiliation	Ninth avatar of Vishnu Deva
Mantra	Om Muni Muni Mahamuni Shakyamuniye Svaha
Symbols	Swastika, Dharmachakra, Modaka
Day	Thursday
Texts	Harivamsa Bhagavata Purana Garuda Purana Vishnu Purana
Gender	Male
Festivals	Buddha Purnima
Genealogy
Born	Siddhartha Gautama c. 563 BCE or 480 BCE Lumbini, Shakya Republic (present-day Lumbini Pradesh, Nepal)
Died	c. 483 BCE or 400 BCE (aged 80) Kushinagar, Malla Republic (present-day Uttar Pradesh, India)
Parents	Śuddhodana (father) Maya (mother) Pajapati (step-mother)
Consort	Yaśodharā
Children	Rāhula (son)
Dynasty	Raghuvamsha-Suryavamsha

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The Buddha (Sanskrit: बुद्ध, lit. ''the enlightened one'') is considered the ninth avatar among the ten major avatars of the god Vishnu, according to the Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism.

The Buddha has been among the formative forces in the origins of Hinduism. Regional Hindu texts over the centuries have presented a spectrum of views on Buddhism, possibly reflecting the competition between Buddhism and the Brahmanical traditions. In contemporary Hinduism, the Buddha is revered by Hindus who usually consider "Buddhism to be another form of Hinduism". Other Hindus reject the identification of Gautama Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu, referring to the texts of the Puranas and identifying the two as different individuals.

Avatar of Vishnu

The Buddha was integrated into Vaishnavism through its mythology in the Vaishnava Puranas, where the Buddha is considered as the ninth avatar of Vishnu. According to the Agni Purana, Vishnu assumed this incarnation on earth due to the daityas (a race of asuras) defeating the devas in their battles. In order to restore the natural order, he deluded the asuras with his teachings. This resulted in them abandoning the path established by the Vedas as they converted to Buddhism, in turn causing them to be devoid of dharma. This caused them to become dasyus (non-Vedic, often hostile ancient Indian tribes) at the end of the Kali Yuga. As a consequence, they were sent to Naraka, devoid of good conduct. Furthermore, the Buddha causes the age to be characterised by the intermixture of the varnas and domination by the Mlecchas (barbarian and foreign forces to Vedic cultures). Subsequently, according to tradition, it became the responsibility of Adi Shankaracharya and future Vaishnava acharyas to re-establish theism.

Chronology

The adoption of the Buddha in texts relating to Hindu gods and of Hindu gods in Buddhist texts is difficult to place chronologically. According to Doniger, the myth of the Buddha avatar first appeared in the pre-Gupta period, when orthodox brahmanistic Vedic traditions were threatened by the rise of Buddhism and Jainism (and by foreign invaders.) According to Doniger, "Hindus came to regard the Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu between A.D. 450 and the sixth century," first appearing in the Vishnu Purana (400-500 CE). According to John Holt, "The replacement of the Buddha as the "cosmic person" within the mythic ideology of Indian kingship occurred at about the same time the Buddha was incorporated and subordinated within the Brahmanical cult of Vishnu."

In literature

The Buddha is mentioned as an avatar of Vishnu in the Puranas and the epics such as:

• Harivamsa (1.41)
• Vishnu Purana (3.18)
• Bhagavata Purana (1.3.24, 2.7.37, 11.4.22)
• Garuda Purana (1.1, 2.30.37, 3.15.26)
• Agni Purana (16, 49.8)
• Naradiya Purana (2.72)
• Linga Purana (1.71)
• Padma Purana (3.252)

Another important scripture that mentions him as an avatar is Parashara's Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (2:1-5/7).

Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu is part of a cosmic cycle, in which the dharma is destroyed in the Kali Yuga, and then restored again in the Satya Yuga, when Vishnu incarnates as Kalki. The Bhavishya Purana incorporates historical facts about dynastical lineages, stating the following:

At this time, reminded of the Kali Age, the god Vishnu became born as Gautama, the Shakyamuni, and taught the Buddhist dharma for ten years. Then Shuddodana ruled for twenty years, and Shakyasimha for twenty. At the first stage of the Kali Age, the path of the Vedas was destroyed and all men became Buddhists. Those who sought refuge with Vishnu were deluded.

Some pre-13th-century Hindu texts, such as the Bhagavata Purana, portray the Buddha as born to lead the asuras, who oppressed the people, away from the Vedic rituals, which they were not worthy to perform. Bhagavata Purana 1.3.24:

Then, in the beginning of Kali-yuga, for the purpose of confusing the enemies of the devas, will become the son of Anjana, Buddha by name, in the Kīkaṭas.

In the Skanda Purana, the Buddha is stated to be one of the incarnations of Vasudeva, and begin enchanting the universe, causing righteousness to dissipate and immorality to prevail:

By becoming Buddha, I shall delude by the use of fallacious reasoning and deceit the Asuras who adopting Vedic practices will harass the three worlds.

— Skanda Purana

Similarly, Acyuta will take up the next birth as Buddha. The Slayer of Madhu, the Lord of the chiefs of Devas, who is fond of the spring season, will be very quiescent. With Lord Parameṣṭhin in the form of Buddha the entire universe consisting of mobile and immobile beings will become enchanted. Ever since then, O descendant of Bharata, sons do not pay heed to the words of fathers, relatives do not pay heed to the words of elders, nor students to the words of preceptors. Everything will become topsy turvy. Dharma is defeated by Adharma, truthfulness by falsehood, kings by thieves, and men by women.

— Skanda Purana, Chapter 151

His father is usually called Śuddhodhana, which is consistent with the Buddhist tradition, while in a few places the Buddha's father is named Añjana or Jina. This is due to the fact that in some texts both Buddhism and Jainism are used by Vishnu to mislead the demons, and a confusion of names and doctrines appears, when the Buddha is called the son of Jina, mistakenly mimicking Buddhist texts which refer to the Buddha as Jina (conqueror), a term more often used in Jainism.

Other texts portray him in a more positive way, as born to stop all killing of animals. Only a few statements mention the worship of Buddha, e.g. the Varahapurana states that one desirous of beauty should worship him. Some pre-14th-century Hindu temples include Buddha reliefs with the same reverence they show for other avatars of Vishnu, but though an avatar of Vishnu, the Buddha is rarely worshipped like Krishna and Rama in Hinduism.

Assimilation of Buddhist influences

The adoption of Buddha may also have been a way to assimilate aspects of Buddhism into the fold of Hinduism. According to Wendy Doniger, "Helmuth von Glasenapp attributed these developments to a Hindu desire to absorb Buddhism in a peaceful manner, both to win Buddhists to Vaishnavism and also to account for the fact that such a significant heresy could exist in India."

According to Donald Swearer, the understanding of Buddha in Hinduism is a part of his wider and diverse influences. Even within Buddhism, states Swearer, Buddha and his ideas are conceptualized differently between Theravada, Mahayana, Tibetan, Japanese and other traditions. Similarly, in various traditions of Hinduism (and elsewhere), Buddha is accepted and interpreted in different ways.

Syncretism

Much like Hinduism's adoption of the Buddha as an avatar, Buddhism legends too adopted Krishna in their Jataka tales, claiming Krishna (Vishnu avatar) to be a character whom Buddha met and taught in his previous births. According to Alf Hiltebeitel and other scholars, some of the stories in Buddha-related Jataka tales found in Pali texts seem slanderous distortions of Hindu legends, but these may reflect the ancient local traditions and the complexities of early interaction between the two Indian religions.

While the Buddhist Jataka texts co-opt Krishna-Vasudeva and make him a student of the Buddha in his previous life, the Hindu texts co-opt the Buddha and make him an avatar of Vishnu. Similarly, in Dasaratha Jataka Buddha identifies himself as Rama.

Rejection

Buddhists traditionally do not accept the Buddha to be a Vishnu avatar. B. R. Ambedkar, an Indian scholar and the Dalit leader who in 1935 declared his intention to convert from Hinduism to Buddhism and converted about 20 years later, rejected the belief that Buddha was an incarnation of Vishnu. Ambedkar's 5th vow out of Twenty-two vows is :

I do not and shall not believe that Lord Buddha was the incarnation of Vishnu. I believe this to be sheer madness and false propaganda.

Some contemporary Hindus also reject the identification of Gautama Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu, referring to the texts of the Puranas. Gurus of the Gaudiya Vaishnava theology argue that in Bhagavata Purana (1.3.24), "son of Ajana," refers to the Vishnu avatar born to Ajana (c. 1800 BCE, according to Stephen Knapp) while Gautama was born to Maya and Śuddodhana. They further argue that epithets for the Buddha like Sugata Buddha and Adi Buddha refer to the Vishnu avatar, not to Gautama Buddha, based on Amarakosha and other Buddhist texts.

In 1999, Śaṅkarācārya of Kanchi, Śrī Jayendra Sarasvatī had released a joint statement with Vipassanācharya S. N. Goenka and declared that:

in order to foster friendlier ties between the two communities we decide that whatever has happened in the past (cannot be undone, but) should be forgotten and such beliefs should not be propagated.

Shankaracharya of Govardhan Peeth, Swami Shri Nischalanada Saraswati, too has stated that the Buddha avatar of Vishnu and Gautama Buddha were different persons.

Iconography

The Agni Purana describes how the figure of the Buddha should be represented:

The figure of Buddha (should be made) as calm, having long ears, white complexion, wearing a cloth, and seated on a lotus with its petals upwards and as conferring favour and protection.

— Agni Purana, Chapter 49, Verse 8

Contemporary reverence

Buddha is considered a holy being and revered as one who was awakened in India. Outside India, some contemporary Hindus revere the Buddha along with other gods during their festivals.

Prominent modern proponents of Hinduism, such as Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Swami Vivekananda, consider the Buddha as an example of the same universal truth that underlies religions. A number of revolutionary figures in modern Hinduism, including Mahatma Gandhi, have been inspired by the life and teachings of the Buddha and many of his attempted reforms. Steven Collins sees such Hindu claims regarding Buddhism as part of an effort - itself a reaction to Christian proselytizing efforts in India - to show that "all religions are one", and that Hinduism is uniquely valuable because it alone recognizes this fact.

Some Hindus usually consider "Buddhism to be another form of Hinduism." Various scholars in India, Sri Lanka and outside South Asia state that the colonial era and contemporary attempts to assimilate Buddha into the Hindu fold are a nationalistic political agenda, where "the Buddha has been reclaimed triumphantly as a symbol of indigenous nationalist understandings of India's history and culture".

According to Lars Tore Flåten, Hindu perceptions, particularly in the literature by Hindu nationalists, are that "Buddha did not break away from the spiritual ideas of his age and country," claiming that scholars such as Hermann Oldenberg (1854-1920), Thomas Rhys Davids (1843-1922) and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) state there is much in common between "Buddhism and the contemporary Hinduism." Yet, in present-day scholarly consensus, Buddhism is considered to be very different from pre-Buddhist Indian religion.

See also

• Buddhism and Hinduism
• Dashavatara
• Vaishnavism

Notes

1. Coulter 2013, p. 109: "According to some, Buddha was the ninth avatar of Vishnu. Buddhists do not accept this theory."
2. tataḥ kalau sampravṛtte sammohāya sura-dviṣām ।
   :buddho nāmnāñjana-sutaḥ kīkaṭeṣu bhaviṣyati ॥
3. Von Glasenapp 1962 page 113, cited in Doniger O'Flaherty 1988, p. 206
4. ^ Krishna and Buddha interact in several Jataka tales such as number 454, 530 and 536. Vishnu appears in some Buddhist manuscripts as Venhu, but not as consistently as Krishna. In the Ghata Jataka, the Hindu god Krishna is depicted as an immature person and Buddha teaches him wisdom.(Sullivan 1999, pp. 103–105 with footnotes)(Hiltebeitel 1990, pp. 64–68)
5. Ambedkar, while he was a Hindu and before he launched a new form of Buddhism, reinterpreted Buddha's teachings into what he called Navayana (New Vehicle), wherein he developed a Marxist interpretation of said teachings. He founded and converted to a new version of Buddhism, a version which criticized and rejected Hinduism, but also Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism because, according to Ambedkar, they all misrepresented the Buddha.
6. Universal truth:
   
   • Vivekananda: "May he who is the Brahman of the Hindus, the Ahura Mazda of Zoroastrians, the Buddha of Buddhists, the Jehovah of the Jews, the Father in Heavens of Christians, give strength to you to carry out your noble ideas!"
   • Radhakrishnan: "If a Hindu chants the Vedas on the banks of the Ganges... if the Japanese worship the image of Buddha, if the European is convinced of Christ's mediatorship, if the Arab reads the Koran in the mosque... It is their deepest apprehension of God and God's fullest revelation to them."
7. These perceptions cite, for example, the Pali scholar Rhys Davids' analysis in Buddhism: Being a Sketch of the Life and Teachings of Gautama, the Buddha, where he wrote: "But the foregoing account will be sufficient, I hope, to remove at least one misconception – the prevalent notion that Gautama was an enemy to Hinduism, and that his chief claim on the gratitude of his countrymen lies in his having destroyed a system of iniquity and oppression and fraud. This is not the case. Gautama was born, and brought up, and lived, and died a Hindu." The Oxford professor and later President of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan states that "as a matter of fact, nowhere did Buddha repudiate the Upanishad conception of Brahman, the absolute"; that Buddha, if anything, "accepted the Upanishad's position".
8. For example, Indologist Richard Gombrich wrote that the Buddha was a radical religious reformer, making religious practice and salvation a more personal matter than it was before the arising of Buddhism. Buddhologists like K.R. Norman and Richard Gombrich argue that the Buddha's anatta theory does indeed extend to the Brahmanical belief expounded in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad that the Self (Atman) is the Universal Self, or Brahman. They point to the Pali Alagaddūpama-sutta, where the Buddha argues that an individual cannot experience the suffering of the entire world. Buddhism, like Hinduism and other major Indian religions, asserts that everything is impermanent (anicca), but, unlike them, also asserts that there is no permanent self or soul in living beings (anattā). The ignorance or misperception (avijjā) that anything is permanent or that there is self in any being is considered a wrong understanding in Buddhism, and the primary source of clinging and suffering (dukkha). Buddha endorsed and taught the concept of rebirth. This refers to a process whereby beings go through a succession of lifetimes as one of many possible forms of sentient life, each running from conception to death. In Buddhist thought, however, this rebirth does not involve any soul, unlike Hinduism and Jainism. According to Buddhism the atman concept is incorrect, untrue.

Subnotes

1. Anatta, Encyclopædia Britannica (2013), Quote: "Anatta in Buddhism, the doctrine that there is in humans no permanent, underlying soul. The concept of anatta, or anatman, is a departure from the Hindu belief in atman ("the self").";
   Steven Collins (1994), Religion and Practical Reason (Editors: Frank Reynolds, David Tracy), State Univ of New York Press, ISBN 978-0791422175, page 64; "Central to Buddhist soteriology is the doctrine of not-self (Pali: anattā, Sanskrit: anātman, the opposed doctrine of ātman is central to Brahmanical thought). Put very briefly, this is the doctrine that human beings have no soul, no self, no unchanging essence.";
   John C. Plott et al (2000), Global History of Philosophy: The Axial Age, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120801585, page 63, Quote: "The Buddhist schools reject any Ātman concept. As we have already observed, this is the basic and ineradicable distinction between Hinduism and Buddhism";
   Katie Javanaud (2013), Is The Buddhist 'No-Self' Doctrine Compatible With Pursuing Nirvana?, Philosophy Now;
   David Loy (1982), Enlightenment in Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta: Are Nirvana and Moksha the Same?, International Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 23, Issue 1, pages 65–74
2. Christmas Humphreys (2012). Exploring Buddhism. Routledge. pp. 42–43. ISBN 978-1-136-22877-3.
   Brian Morris (2006). Religion and Anthropology: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge University Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-521-85241-8., Quote: "(...) anatta is the doctrine of non-self, and is an extreme empiricist doctrine that holds that the notion of an unchanging permanent self is a fiction and has no reality. According to Buddhist doctrine, the individual person consists of five skandhas or heaps – the body, feelings, perceptions, impulses and consciousness. The belief in a self or soul, over these five skandhas, is illusory and the cause of suffering."
   Gombrich (2006), page 47, Quote: "(...) Buddha's teaching that beings have no soul, no abiding essence. This 'no-soul doctrine' (anatta-vada) he expounded in his second sermon."

References

1. "Incarnations of Vāsudeva [Chapter 18]". 5 March 2020.
2. Cousins (1996), pp. 57–63.
3. Norman (1997), p. 33.
4. Prebish (2008).
5. ^ Srinivasan 2011, p. 182.
6. ^ Lochtefeld 2002, p. 73, 128.
7. ^ Holt 2008, p. 18–21.
8. ^ Holt, Kinnard & Walters 2012, p. 4, 95, 111.
9. ^ Jones & Ryan 2006, p. 96.
10. Holt 2008, p. 8–22.
11. www.wisdomlib.org (2021-11-01). "Manifestation of Viṣṇu as Buddha and Kalki [Chapter 16]". www.wisdomlib.org. Retrieved 2022-07-17.
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External links

• Buddha as Depicted in the Puranas, R. S. Bhattacharya (1982) (Internet Archive)
• Media related to Shakyamuni Buddha in Hinduism at Wikimedia Commons

v t e Avatars of Vishnu
Dashavatara (for example)	Matsya Kurma Varaha Narasimha Vamana Parashurama Rama Balarama Krishna Buddha Kalki
Other avatars	Four Kumaras Narada Nara-Narayana Kapila Dattatreya Yajna Rishabha Prithu Dhanvantari Mohini Vyasa Prsnigarbha Hayagriva Hamsa
The list of the "ten avatars" varies regionally. Two substitutions involve Balarama, Krishna, and Buddha. Krishna is almost always included; in exceptions, he is considered the source of all avatars.

• Buddhism and Hinduism
• Avatars of Vishnu
• Gautama Buddha