The Mahima movement claims to have been founded by the
Buddha himself, though at first confined to a select group of
hearers. The consensus of the evidence, however, is that it originated
in South India in the 1st century A.D. There are references1
in the Mahiiyiina siitras themselves to their being known in the
South after the pan'ninMina, after which they will spread to the East2
and then the North. Several of the leading teachers of the new
doctrines were born in South India, studied there and afterwards
went to the North to teach: one of the earliest, if he was a
Mahapist, being Nagquna. Other major siitras are circumstantially
connected with the South, for example the detailed itinerary
there of the Ganqhyiiha and location of the bodhisattua Maitreya
there, whilst the LankEvatEra is connected with Ceylon (both these
sii~rar are later and show a new phase of Mahayana which we shall
discuss in the next chapter, but they show that the South was then
vigorously creative in producing Mahiiyiina sutras, which may well
have been a continuation of earlier creativity