History of Buddhism Xuanzang in 7th-century India were Mahayanists. Early Mahayana schools of thought included the Mādhyamaka, Yogācāra, and Buddha-nature ("Tathāgatagarbha") teachings. Mahayana is today the dominant form of Buddhism in East Asia and Tibet. Several scholars have suggested that the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras, which are among the earliest Mahāyāna sūtras, developed among the Mahāsāṃghika along the Kṛṣṇa River in the Āndhra region of South India. The earliest Mahāyāna sūtras to include the very first versions of the Prajñāpāramitā genre, along with texts concerning Akṣobhya Buddha, which were probably written down in the 1st century BCE in the south of India. A.K. Warder believes
Faith in Buddhism not exist in Buddhism. However, worship of deities has often been considered a form of superstition or a form of skillful means to guide the unenlightened to a better life, and not much more than that. In the history of the diffusion of Buddhism, the relation between Buddhism and local deities was an important aspect of success, but Buddhists have often denied this because of local movements for orthodoxy. Furthermore, scholars have paid little interest to the role of local deities, since it is not covered by any of the standard academic disciplines studying Buddhism, such as Buddhist studies or