The only known image of ancient Indian Samsāravakra in the Ajantā Grottoes exhibits pacagand aka samsara philosophy and roughly corresponds to the Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya, suggesting that Hīnayāna sarvāstivāda was popular in the region of the grottoes. The even more popular sadgandaka found later in China and other areas, which was based on vātsīputrīya with newly added elements of asura-gati, takes its source from sarvāstivāda. The rise of Mahāyāna Buddhism marked a shift from the self-deliverance of Hīnayāna Buddhism to belief in deliverance by other worldly powers by attributing practices of liberation from samsara to Avalokite vara,a change observable in six images of Avalokitesvara rescuing the sad-gati. Later, the newly emerging K itigarbha belief replaced the six Avalokite vara with six images of Ksitigarbha and became popular in East Asia regions including China and Korea. In India, Avalokitesvara was dominant, the final form of being represented by Hayagrīva Loke vra, one of the 108 Lokesvraas of Nepal. Hayagrīva Lokesvra was similar to Samsāravakra in that Avalokite vara governed the six Buddhas, and differed from the horse-headed and human-bodied Avalokite vara or the Avalokite vara whose crown was decorated with horses found in China and India. These changes indicate that Avalokite vara had transcended other Buddhas in status to become the Cosmological Buddha,echoing exactly the belief in Vairocana once popular in China.
