Origins (Maitreya)
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Maitreya, who is often represented seated on a throne Western-style, and venerated both in Mahayana and non-Mahayana Buddhism, is sometimes considered to have been influenced by the Zoroastrian Mithra. Some Zoroastrian ideas seem to have influenced the cult of Maitreya, such as "expectations of a heavenly helper, the need to opt for positive righteousness, the future millennium, and universal salvation", according to Paul Williams. In the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandharan the first centuries CE in northern India, Maitreya was the most popular figure to be represented, together with the Buddha Shakyamuni. In China, the cult of Maitreya seems to have developed earlier than that of Amithaba, as early as the 3rd century AD.