-* The History of the emergence of the Mahayana.


And returns the first writings of the holy book Almahayani to the first century BC, also remember that Buddhist sites in the same







The Mahayana scriptures were probably set in writing around the 1st century BCE.









The historical record shows it emerging as a separate school from Theravada during the 1st century BCE. However, it most likely had been developing gradually for a long time before that.













And adds the site

Specialized in Buddhism

It is weighted according to some researchers

Had been originated from a Buddhist name Mahasanghika appeared before 320 years BC.






In spite of the apparently easy resolution of the disciplinary dispute, the years after the Second Council saw the emergence and proliferation of many separate schools such as the Maha Sanghikas who some regard as the progenitors of the Mahayana, Vatsiputriyas and others. Consequently, by the time of the Third Council, held during the reign of Emperor Ashoka, in the third century B. C. E., there were already at least eighteen schools, each with its own doctrines and disciplinary rules




At yet another council, held during the reign of King Kanishka in the first century C.E., two more important schools emerged--the Vaibhashikas and the Sautrantikas. These differed on the authenticity of the Abhidharma, the Vaibhashikas holding that the Abhidharma was taught by the Buddha, while the Sautrantikas held that it was not. By this time, Mahayana accounts tell us, a number of assemblies had been convened in order to compile the scriptures of the Mahayana tradition which were already reputed to be vast in number. In the north and south west of India as well as at Nalanda in Magadha, the Mahayana was studied and taught. Many of the important ####s of the Mahayana were believed to have been related by Maitreya the future Buddha and other celestial Bodhisattvas or preserved among the serpent gods of the underworld until their discovery by Mahayana masters such as Nagarjuna.





The period between the Second Council and the first century B.C.E. saw the growth of Mahayana literature in India and the emergence of a number of important



[Taken from Peter Della Santina., The Tree of Enlightenment. (Taiwan: The Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation, 1997), pp. 133-141].