How many Avatars of Vishnu are narrated so far?
There are twenty two + Avatars (incarnations) of Vishnu in the Bhagavatha Purana. Sikh’s Dasam Granth written by Guru Gobind Singh has listed 24 Avatars of Lord Vishnu.
But Bhagavatha Purana says his incarnations are innumerable. Whenever Vishnu comes down in some form to help a devotee, it is considered an Avatar. But later Puranas made Ten Avatars more popular and grouped them under Dasavatar. The strange thing about this list is suddenly Buddha’s name was inserted as an avatar of Vishnu!! In short Buddha was Hinduized or reconverted to Hinduism!!
After Buddha’s death some fanatics started “Buddhasizing” everything. The entire ancient Hindu stories from proto Panchatantra folklore, Ramayana and Mahabharata to Puranas were converted as stories of Buddha’s previous Avatar. Six hundred such stories were collected as Jataka Tales. In short they “stole the Avatar concept” from the Hindus and converted all the characters as Bodhisatvas. Bhagavatha Purana of the Gupta period included the Buddha in the Avatar list. Then came a clever man among the Hindus by name Jayadeva (1200 CE), the author of Gita Govindam, who gave a final blow to the already dying Buddhism, by including Buddha as an avatar of Lord Vishnu in his Gita Govindam. Nobody bothered or objected to it. Hindus can digest anything that comes their way. They digested all the invading western tribes. In the same way Buddhism was also absorbed by including the Buddha in the list of Ten Greta Avatars.
Jayadeva’s hymns known as astapathis included Buddha in the following sloka:
“O you merciful heart denounced the Veda where the slaughter of cattle was taught. O Kesava, you in the form of the Buddha, victory to you, Hari, the lord of the world”.
The commentator also said the Buddha did not condemn the whole Veda but only the part of it which supported sacrifices.
In the next verse Jayadeva listed all the ten incarnations of Vishnu :-
“Who upheld the Vedas , supported the universe,
Bore up the world, destroyed the demons, deceived Bali,
Broke the force of the Kshatriyas, conquered Ravana , made the plough, spread mercy, who took the ten forms. Prevailed over aliens, Homage. O Krishna”.
Philosopher Dr S Radhakrishnan said, “ Buddha utilized the Hindu inheritance to correct some of its expressions. He came to fulfil, not to destroy.”
Bhagavatham mentioned the following 22:
1)Purusha, the male progenitor or Four Sons of Brahma 2)Varaha, the boar 3)Narada, the great sage 4)Nara and Narayana 5)Kapila, a sage 6)Dattatreya, a sage 7)Yajna, sacrifice 8)Rishaba, a righteous king, father of Bharata (may be the first Tirthankara of Jains) 9)Prithu, a king 10)Matsya, the fish 11)Kurma, a tortoise 12) Dhanvantri, the physician of the Gods.13) Mohini 14)Nara-simha, the man lion 15)Vamana, the dwarf 16)Parasurama 17)Veda Vyasa 18)Rama 19)Balarama 20)Krishna 21)Buddha 22)Kalki
Hamsa (swan) and Hayagriva (horse faced) avatars also mentioned elsewhere.
Dasamagranth gave a slightly different list with 24 avatars by adding, Brahma, Rudra, Manu, sun, moon, Seshasayi, and Jalandhara by replacing a few. But all the main ten Avatars are there.
So the inclusion of the Buddha in the avatar list was a tactical move to neutralise the effect of Buddhism. They were paid back in their own coin!
Research paper written by London Swaminathan Post No.1156; Dated 7th July 2014. How many Avatars of Vishnu are narrated so far? There are twenty two + Avatars (incarnations) of Vishnu in the Bhagav…
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