Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 2Eliot, Charles
Religion
Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 2
Eliot, Charles
Asia -- Religion; Buddhism; Hinduism
Pandit Harapraśad Sastri mentions a
singular poem called Buddhacaritra, completed in 1711 and celebrating
an incarnation of Buddha which apparently commenced in 1699 and was to
end in the reappearance of the golden age. But the being called Buddha
is a form of Vishṇu and the work is as strange a jumble of religion
as it is of languages, being written in "a curious medley of bad
Sanskrit, bad Hindi and bad Bihari."
It is chiefly in Orissa that traces of Buddhism can still be found
within the limits of India proper. The Saraks of Baramba, Tigaria and
the adjoining parts of Cuttack describe themselves as Buddhists.[280]
Their name is the modern equivalent of Śrâvaka and they apparently
represent an ancient Buddhist community which has become a sectarian
caste. They have little knowledge of their religion but meet once a
year in the cave temples of Khandagiri, to worship a deity called
Buddhadeva or Caturbhuja. All their ceremonies commence with the
formula _Ahiṃsâ parama dharma_ and they respect the temple of Puri,
which is suspected of having a Buddhist origin.
Nagendranâth Vasu has published some interesting details as to the
survival of Buddhist ideas in Orissa.[281] He traces the origin of
this hardy though degraded form of Mahayanism to Râmâi Pandit,[282] a
tantric Âcârya of Magadha who wrote a work called Śûnya Purâṇa which
became popular. Orissa was one of the regions which offered the
longest resistance to Islam, for it did not succumb until 1568. A
period of Śivaism in the tenth and eleventh centuries is indicated by
the temples of Bhuvaneshwar and other monuments. But in the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries the reigning dynasty were worshippers of
Vishnu and built the great temples at Puri and Konârak, dedicated to
Jagannâtha and Sûrya-nârâyaṇa respectively. We do not however hear
that they persecuted Buddhism and there are reasons for thinking that
Jagannâtha is a form of the Buddha[283] and that the temple at Puri
was originally a Buddhist site. It is said that it contains a gigantic
statue of the Buddha before which a wall has been built and also that
the image of Jagannâtha, which is little more than a log of wood, is
really a case enclosing a Buddhist relic. King Pratâparudra († 1529)
persecuted Buddhism, which implies that at this late date its
adherents were sufficiently numerous to attract attention. Either at
the beginning of his reign or before it there flourished a group of
six poets of whom the principal were Acyutânanda Dâsa and Caitanya
Dâsa.[284] Their works are nominally devoted to the celebration of
Kṛishṇa's praises and form the chief vernacular scripture of the
Vaishṇavas in Orissa but in them Kṛishṇa, or the highest form of
the deity by whatever name he is called, is constantly identified with
Śûnya or the Void, that favourite term of Mahayanist philosophy.
Passages from them are also quoted stating that in the Kali age the
followers of the Buddha must disguise themselves; that there are 3000
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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