In Great Concentration and Insight Zhiyi writes the following:
On “The Words and Phrases.” Miao-lo (Zhanran) sixth Tiantai patriarch and Saicho's teacher writes:“Vasubandhu and Nāgārjuna clearly perceived the truth in their hearts, but they did not teach it. Instead, they employed the provisional Mahayana teachings, which were suited to the times.”
Nichiren comments in a few writings about such:“Does this not mean that Buddhism has been lost in India, the country of its origin, and must now be sought in the surrounding regions? But even in China there are few people who recognize the greatness of T’ien-t’ai’s teachings. They are like the people of Lu.”
In The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind Established in the Fifth Five-Hundred-Year Period after the Thus Come One’s Passing:
I will now address the problems posed by the scholars you mentioned above. The Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai comments: “Vasubandhu and Nāgārjuna clearly perceived the truth in their hearts, but they did not teach it. Instead, they employed the provisional Mahayana teachings, which were suited to the times. The Buddhist teachers who came later, however, were biased in their understanding, and the scholars obstinately clung to their own views, until in the end they began to battle with one another. Each defended one small corner of the teachings and thereby completely departed from the sacred way of the Buddha.” The Great Teacher Chang-an says of T’ien-t’ai, “Even the great scholars of India were not in a class with him, and the Chinese teachers—well, one need hardly mention them. This is no idle boast—the doctrine he taught was indeed of such excellence.”
In Aspiration for the Buddha Land:In their hearts Vasubandhu, Nāgārjuna, Ashvaghosha, Sāramati, and other Buddhist scholars knew [the doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life], but they did not reveal it to others because the time for it to be expounded had not yet come. As for the Buddhist teachers in China who preceded T’ien-t’ai, some kept this treasure in their hearts, and others knew nothing about it. Among those who came after him, some accepted this doctrine only after first trying to disprove it, and others never accepted it at all.
The Selection of the Time:When I sent back from Teradomari the lay priest whom you dispatched on the tenth day of the tenth month to accompany me, I wrote out and entrusted to him certain teachings for you.1 As you may have guessed from these, [the advent of the great Law] is already before our very eyes. In the twenty-two hundred and more years since the Buddha’s passing, and in India, China, Japan, and throughout Jambudvīpa, [the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai said], “Vasubandhu and Nāgārjuna clearly perceived the truth in their hearts, but they did not teach it. Instead, they employed the provisional Mahayana teachings, which were suited to the times.” T’ien-t’ai and Dengyō commented generally on it, but left its propagation for the future. The secret Law that is the one great reason the Buddhas make their advent will be spread for the first time in this country.
On Repaying Debts of GratitudeIf we examine the merit achieved by the Great Teacher Dengyō, we would have to say that he is a sage who surpasses Nāgārjuna and Vasubandhu and who excels both T’ien-t’ai and Miao-lo. If so, then what priest in Japan today could turn his back on the perfect precepts of the Great Teacher Dengyō, whether he belongs to Tō-ji, Onjō-ji, or the seven major temples of Nara, or whether he is a follower of one of the eight schools or of the Pure Land, Zen, or Precepts school in whatever corner of the land?
-----------------------Thus, although their enlightenment may have been the same, from the point of view of the teaching that they propagated, Ashvaghosha and Nāgārjuna were superior to Mahākāshyapa and Ānanda, T’ien-t’ai was superior to Ashvaghosha and Nāgārjuna, and Dengyō surpassed T’ien-t’ai. In these latter times, people’s wisdom becomes shallow, while the Buddhist teaching becomes more profound. To give an analogy, a mild illness can be cured with ordinary medicine, but a severe illness requires an elixir. A man who is weak must have strong allies to help him.
From this quotes one can see that the Tiantai patriarchs saw their school as beyond and superior to the Indian schools that had come previously and as such outlining the definitive teachings instead of provisional teachings of both Madhyamaka and Yogachara.
Nichiren comments on such matters also show us that he had this same view on the matter and as such seeing the Tendai interpretation of the teachings of the Lotus being ultimately different and superior to Indian schools of Buddhism including the Madhyamaka and Yogachara schools.