Note 289:2 — Chapter XXIX
Reading edition
See chap. xii. Buddha is considered to be an incarnation of Vishnu, although he preached against the doctrines of the Brahmans. The adoption of Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu was really owning to the desire of the Brahmans to effect a compromise with Buddhism. (See Williams' Hinduism, pp. 82 and 108.)
"Buddha was brought forth not from the matrix, but from the right side, of a virgin." (De Guignes: Hist. des Huns, tom. i. p. 224.)
"Some of the (Christian) heretics maintained that Christ was born from the side of his mother." (Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 157.)
"In the eyes of the Buddhists, this personage is sometimes a man and sometimes a god, or rather both one and the other, a divine incarnation, a man-god; who came into the world to enlighten men, to redeem them, and to indicate to them the way of safety. This idea of redemption by a divine incarnation is so general and popular among the Buddhists, that during our travels in Upper Asia, we everywhere found it expressed in a neat formula. If we addressed to a Mongol or Thibetan the question, 'Who is Buddha?' he would immediately reply, 'The Saviour of Men.'" (M. L'Abbé Huc: Travels, vol. i. p. 326.)
"The miraculous birth of Buddha, his life and instructions, contain a great number of the moral and dogmatic truths professed in Christianity." (Ibid. p. 327.)
"He in mercy left paradise, and came down to earth because he was filled with compassion for the sins and misery of mankind. He sought to lead them into better paths, and took their sufferings upon himself, that he might expiate their crimes, and mitigate the punishment they must otherwise inevitably undergo." (L. Maria Child.)