The Return of the Bodhisattvas and Other Possible Explanations for the Appearance of Mahāyāna Sūtras

Abstract This article looks at passages in Mahāyāna sūtras that make claims about where these texts came from, or could potentially come from. It focuses mainly on a large body of passages that depict the revealers of these texts as great bodhisattvas appointed by the Buddha to return to this world to reveal them at the time of the disappearance of the true Dharma. It also considers two other possible explanations for the origin of these texts discussed by previous scholars.