Within the Indian Mahāyāna tradition, several core scriptures are repeatedly invoked when speaking of Tathāgatagarbha, or Buddha‑nature. The *Tathāgatagarbha Sūtra* stands at the heart of this corpus, offering a concise yet foundational articulation of the idea that all beings possess the “embryo” or “womb” of a Buddha. Alongside it, the *Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra* (Lion’s Roar of Queen Śrīmālā) develops this theme in a more systematic way, presenting Buddha‑nature as the pure dharmakāya temporarily obscured by adventitious defilements. These two texts together sketch both the seed and the early doctrinal unfolding of the Buddha‑nature teaching.

A wider circle of Mahāyāna sūtras further elaborates this vision. The Mahāyāna *Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra* is especially influential, depicting Buddha‑nature as permanent, blissful, pure, and as a kind of true Self, while still operating within a Mahāyāna framework. The *Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra* weaves Tathāgatagarbha into Yogācāra thought, at times linking Buddha‑nature with the storehouse consciousness, and thus situating it within a sophisticated model of mind. The *Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra* and the *Mahābherī (Mahābherīhāraka) Sūtra* are also counted among the Tathāgatagarbha scriptures, emphasizing themes such as the universality and indestructibility of this nature.

In addition to these sūtras, certain śāstras and later treatises give the doctrine its most systematic and far‑reaching expression. Foremost among them is the *Ratnagotravibhāga* (also known as the *Uttaratantra Śāstra*), attributed to Maitreya/Asaṅga, which has long been regarded as the key philosophical exposition of Buddha‑nature. The *Awakening of Faith in Mahāyāna* (*Mahāyāna Śraddhotpāda Śāstra*), though likely composed in China, plays a pivotal role in shaping East Asian understandings by synthesizing Tathāgatagarbha with other Mahāyāna doctrines. Together, these works form a kind of scriptural constellation, each text illuminating a different facet of the same underlying intuition: that the awakened quality of a Buddha is not something alien to sentient beings, but is already present, though veiled, at the very core of their being.