[357] Book I, cantos 74-76.
[358] A parallel phenomenon is the belief found in Bali, that Buddha is Śiva's brother.
[359] For Brahmanic ideas about Buddha see Vishṇu Purâṇa, III. 18. The Bhâgavata Purâṇa, I. 3. 24 seems to make the Buddha incarnation future. It also counts Kapila and Ṛishabha, apparently identical with the founder of the Sânkhya and the first Jain saint, as incarnations. The Padma Purâṇa seems to ascribe not only Buddhism but the Mâyâ doctrine of Śankara to delusions deliberately inspired by gods. I have not been able to find the passage in the printed edition of the Purâṇa but it is quoted in Sanskrit by Aufrecht, Cat. Cod. Bib. Bodl. p. 14, and Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, p. 198.
[360] See Norman in Trans. Third Int. Congress of Religions, II. p. 85. In the Ind. Ant. 1918, p. 145 Jayaswal tries to prove that Kalkî is a historical personage and identical with King Yaśodharman of Central India (about A.D. 500) and that the idea of his being a future saviour is late. This theory offers difficulties, for firstly there is no proof that the passages of the Mahabharata which mention Kalkî (III. 190, 13101; III. 191, 13111: XII. 340, 12968) are additions later than Yaśodharman and secondly if Kalkî was first a historical figure and then projected into the future we should expect to hear that he will come again, but such language is not quoted. On the other hand it seems quite likely (1) that there was an old tradition about a future saviour called Kalkî, (2) that Yaśodharman after defeating the Huns assumed the rôle, (3) and that when it was found that the golden age had not recommenced he was forgotten (as many pseudo-Messiahs have been) and Kalkî again became a hope for the future. Vincent Smith (Hist. of India, ed. III. p. 320) intimates that Yaśodharman performed considerable exploits but was inordinately boastful.
[361] Another version of the story which omits the expedition to Laṅka and makes Sîtâ the sister of Râma is found in the Dasaratha Jâtaka (641).
[362] But this colonization is attributed by tradition to Vijaya, not Râma.
[363] See especially book VI. p. 67, in Growse's Translation.
[364] See Muir's Sanskrit Texts, vol. IV. especially pp. 441-491.
[365] Ekanâtha, who lived in the sixteenth century, calls the Adhyâtma R. a modern work. See Bhandarkar, Vaishn. and Saivism, page 48. The Yoga-Vasishtḥa R. purports to be instruction given by Vasishṭha to Râma who wishes to abandon the world. Its date is uncertain but it is quoted by authors of the fourteenth century. It is very popular, especially in south India, where an abridgment in Tamil called Jñâna-Vasishṭha is much read. Its doctrine appears to be Vedântist with a good deal of Buddhist philosophy. Salvation is never to think that pleasures and pains are "mine."
[366] Châṇḍ. Up. III. 17.6