Graha Rūpī Janardana

The navagraha have been accepted by the kāliṅga people as nine incarnations of Jagannāth.

Agreement and differences are listed in the table above. The entire issue is with Mercury where those following Jagannāth Temple, treat Balarāma as the avatāra. This is very peculiar only to the kāliṅga people. They do not accept Buddha as a Viṣṇu avatāra largely because of the path which taught to leave the veda and yajña. A Viṣṇu avatāra cannot disown the veda.

However, being aware of this controversy, Jayadeva has added ‘haladhara-rūpa’ for Mercury avatāra due to the great invention of the plough and the super-plough weapon of Balarāma by which He could uproot a whole city! But he has added ‘buddha-śarīra’ as the ninth avatāra to agree with ṛṣi like Parāśara who have explicitly stated Buddha as the ninth and Kṛṣṇa as the eighth avatāra.

There is some difficulty on the part of some of the sāsana brāhmaṇa to say that Śrī Kṛṣṇa is an avatāra whereas He was complete manifestation of Jagannāth with all sixteen kalā and every attribute that can be spoken of Viṣṇu as well. An avatāra is always portrayed as being lesson in some manner than the lord Jagannāth (jagadīśvara name used by Jayadeva)