A good deal of important scholarship on early Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism has been done in recent years. Well established theories, such as the theory that the Mahāyāna arose as a lay reaction to the arhat ideal and the theory that it arose from the inline image monastic lineage, have been rejected, and a number of new theories, perhaps most notably theories linking Mahāyāna to forest ascetics and to a ‘cult of the book,’ have been put forward. Part 1 of this article surveys and evaluates these recent developments. Part 2 will present a number of new perspectives for future scholarship.
