page_title: Sarvastivada
section_title: Dārṣṭāntikas and Sautrāntikas
hierarchical_section_title: Sarvastivada / Sub-schools / Dārṣṭāntikas and Sautrāntikas
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: 世親像　木彫　 高186cm about ACE1208 鎌倉時代, 奈良興福寺北円堂 English: Seshin (Vasubandhu)(indian buddhist 4-5th century), Wood, 186cm height, about ACE1208,The Northern Octagonal Hall of Kofukuji Temple, Nara, Japan
context_page_description: The Sarvāstivāda was one of the early Buddhist schools established around the reign of Asoka. It was particularly known as an Abhidharma tradition, with a unique set of seven Abhidharma works.
  The Sarvāstivādins were one of the most influential Buddhist monastic groups, flourishing throughout North India and Central Asia until the 7th century. The orthodox Kashmiri branch of the school composed the large and encyclopedic Mahāvibhāṣa Śāstra around the time of the reign of Kanishka. Because of this, orthodox Sarvāstivādins who upheld the doctrines in the Mahāvibhāṣa were called Vaibhāṣikas.
  The Sarvāstivādins are believed to have given rise to the Mūlasarvāstivāda sect as well as the Sautrāntika tradition, although the relationship between these groups has not yet been fully determined.
context_section_description: The Sautrāntikas ("those who uphold the sūtras"), also known as Dārṣṭāntikas (who may or may not have been a separate but related group), did not uphold the Mahāvibhāṣa Śāstra, but rather emphasized the Buddhist sūtras as being authoritative. 
  Already by the time of the MVŚ, the early Dārṣṭāntikas such as Dharmatrāta and Buddhadeva, existed as a school of thought within the fold of the Sarvāstivāda who disagreed with the orthodox views. These groups were also called "the western masters" (pāścātya), the foreign masters (bahirdeśaka; also called ‘the masters outside Kaśmīra’, and the ‘Gāndhārian masters’). They studied the same Abhidharma texts as other Sarvāstivādins, but in a more critical way. According to KL Dhammajoti, they eventually came to repudiate the Sarvāstivāda doctrine of "all exists."
  It is this group, i.e. those who rejected the most important Sarvāstivāda doctrine (along with numerous other key Vaibhāṣika views), which came to be called Sautrāntika (those who rely on sutras). The Sautrāntikas did not reject abhidharma however, in fact they were the authors of several abhidharma manuals, like the *Abhidharmahṛdaya.
  The most important Sautrāntika was Vasubandhu (ca.350-430), a native from Purusapura in Gandhara. He is famous for his Abhidharmakośa, a very influential abhidharma work, with an auto commentary that defends Sautrāntika views. He famously later converted to the Yogacara school of Mahayana, a tradition that itself developed out of the Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma.   
  Vasubandhu's Kośa led to a vigorous reaction from his contemporary, the brilliant Vaibhāṣika master Saṃghabhadra, who is said to have spent 12 years composing the *Nyāyānusāra (a commentary to Vasubandhu's verses) to refute Vasubandhu and other Sautrāntikas such as Sthavira Śrīlāta and his pupil Rāma.     
  The Kośa was so influential that  it became the Abhidharma text par excellence in both East Asian Buddhism and Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. Even today, it remains the main text for the study of Abhidharma in these traditions.    
  The later Buddhist tradition of pramāṇa founded by Dignāga and Dharmakīrti is also associated with the Sautrāntika school.
caption: Vasubandhu: Wood, 186 cm height, about 1208, Kofukuji Temple, Nara, Japan
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-FZ2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver1.00", "Image DateTime": "2008:03:07 16:40:15", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "416", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1424", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "11186", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/30", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Portrait Mode", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:03:07 16:40:15", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:03:07 16:40:15", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "4907/1000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "3", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "23/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "740", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1018", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1288", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 0, 2, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "35", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Portrait", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Hard", "EXIF Saturation": "Hard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "2"}