Buddhism

===Mahāyāna Buddhism===
{{Main|Mahāyāna}}
[[File:BuddhistTriad.JPG|thumb|left|alt=stone statue group, a Buddhist triad depicting, left to right, a Kushan, the future buddha Maitreya, Gautama Buddha, the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, and a Buddhist monk. 2nd–3rd century. Guimet Museum|A Buddhist triad depicting, left to right, a [[Kushan Empire|Kushan]], the future buddha [[Maitreya]], [[Gautama Buddha]], the bodhisattva [[Avalokiteśvara]], and a [[bhikkhu|monk]]. Second–third century. [[Guimet Museum]]]]

The origins of Mahāyāna ("Great Vehicle") Buddhism are not well understood and there are various competing theories about how and where this movement arose. Theories include the idea that it began as various groups venerating certain texts or that it arose as a strict forest ascetic movement.<ref name="Drewes, David 2010">Drewes, David, ''Early Indian Mahayana Buddhism I: Recent Scholarship'', Religion Compass 4/2 (2010): 55–65, {{doi|10.1111/j.1749-8171.2009.00195.x}}</ref>

The first Mahāyāna works were written sometime between the 1st century BCE and the 2nd century CE.{{sfnp|Hirakawa|1993|p=252}}<ref name="Drewes, David 2010"/> Much of the early extant evidence for the origins of Mahāyāna comes from early Chinese translations of Mahāyāna texts, mainly those of [[Lokaksema (Buddhist monk)|Lokakṣema]]. (2nd century CE).{{refn|group=note|name=China Buswell 2004|"The most important evidence – in fact the only evidence – for situating the emergence of the Mahayana around the beginning of the common era was not Indian evidence at all, but came from China. Already by the last quarter of the 2nd century CE, there was a small, seemingly idiosyncratic collection of substantial Mahayana sutras translated into what Erik Zürcher calls 'broken Chinese' by an Indoscythian, whose Indian name has been reconstructed as Lokaksema."{{sfnp|Buswell|2004|p=492}}}} Some scholars have traditionally considered the earliest [[Mahayana sutras|Mahāyāna sūtras]] to include the first versions of the [[Prajnaparamita]] series, along with texts concerning [[Akshobhya|Akṣobhya]], which were probably composed in the 1st century BCE in the south of India.{{sfnp|Hirakawa|1993|pp=252–253, 263, 268}}{{refn|group=note|name=South|"The south (of India) was then vigorously creative in producing Mahayana Sutras" Warder{{sfnp|Warder|2000|p=335}}}}

There is no evidence that Mahāyāna ever referred to a separate formal school or sect of Buddhism, with a separate monastic code (Vinaya), but rather that it existed as a certain set of ideals, and later doctrines, for bodhisattvas.{{sfnp|Nattier|2003|pp=193–194}}{{sfnp|Williams|2008|pp=4–5}} Records written by Chinese monks visiting India indicate that both Mahāyāna and non-Mahāyāna monks could be found in the same monasteries, with the difference that Mahāyāna monks worshipped figures of Bodhisattvas, while non-Mahayana monks did not.{{sfnp|Williams|2000|p=97}}

[[File:Nalanda.jpg|thumb|Site of [[Nalanda]] University, a great centre of Mahāyāna thought]]
Mahāyāna initially seems to have remained a small minority movement that was in tension with other Buddhist groups, struggling for wider acceptance.<ref>Walser, Joseph, ''Nagarjuna in Context: Mahayana Buddhism and Early Indian Culture,'' Columbia University Press, 2005, p. 18.</ref> However, during the fifth and sixth centuries CE, there seems to have been a rapid growth of Mahāyāna Buddhism, which is shown by a large increase in epigraphic and manuscript evidence in this period. However, it still remained a minority in comparison to other Buddhist schools.<ref>Walser, Joseph, ''Nagarjuna in Context: Mahayana Buddhism and Early Indian Culture,'' Columbia University Press, 2005, pp. 29-34.</ref>

Mahāyāna Buddhist institutions continued to grow in influence during the following centuries, with large monastic university complexes such as [[Nalanda]] (established by the 5th-century CE Gupta emperor, [[Kumaragupta I]]) and [[Vikramashila]] (established under [[Dharmapala (emperor)|Dharmapala]] {{Circa|783}} to 820) becoming quite powerful and influential. During this period of Late Mahāyāna, four major types of thought developed: Mādhyamaka, Yogācāra, Buddha-nature (''Tathāgatagarbha''), and the [[Buddhist logico-epistemology#The Dignāga-Dharmakīrti tradition|epistemological tradition of Dignaga and Dharmakirti]].{{sfnp|Hirakawa|1993|pp=8–9}} According to [[Dan Lusthaus]], Mādhyamaka and Yogācāra have a great deal in common, and the commonality stems from early Buddhism.{{sfnp|Lusthaus|2002|pp=236–237}}