and Hegel.

Since the early history of the Mahayana is a matter for argument
rather than precise statement, it will perhaps be best to begin with
some account of its doctrines and literature and proceed afterwards to
chronology. I may, however, mention that general tradition connects it
with King Kanishka and asserts that the great doctors Aśvaghosha and
Nâgârjuna lived in and immediately after his reign. The attitude of
Kanishka and of the Council which he summoned towards the Mahayana is
far from clear and I shall say something about this difficult subject
below. Unfortunately his date is not beyond dispute for while a
considerable consensus of opinion fixes his accession at about 78
A.D., some scholars place it earlier and others in the second century
A.D.[4] Apart from this, it appears established that the
Sukhâvatî-vyûha which is definitely Mahayanist was translated into
Chinese between 147 and 186 A.D. We may assume that it was then
already well known and had been composed some time before, so that,
whatever Kanishka's date may have been, Mahayanist doctrines must have
been in existence about the time of the Christian era, and perhaps
considerably earlier. Naturally no one date like a reign or a council
can be selected to mark the beginning of a great school. Such a body
of doctrine must have existed piecemeal and unauthorized before it was
collected and recognized and some tenets are older than others.
Enlarging I-Ching's definition we may find in the Mahayana seven lines
of thought or practice. All are not found in all sects and some are
shared with the Hinayana but probably none are found fully developed
outside the Mahayana. Many of them have parallels in the contemporary
phases of Hinduism.

1. A belief in Bodhisattvas and in the power of human beings to become