This paper discusses the sūtra′s place in the history of Indian MahayanaBuddhism, pointing out that the sūtra, the earliest one in the MahāyānaBuddhist prajnāsūtras, not only has the substance of a prajnāsūtra butalso bears characteristics of its own. The paper also analyses the reasons for the sūtra′s far-flung spread fol-lowing its introduction into the interior of China at the beginning of the5th century AD, the focus of the analysis being on its influence uponChinese culture and art, as well as upon Chinese Buddhist ideology
