Early Monastic Buddhism v2.c36.2

v2.c36.2

This group of schools comprised mainly the Vajjiputtakas or Vātsīputrīyas, Dhammuttarīyas, Bhadrayānikas, Channagarikas and Sammatīyas. Of these the Vātsīputrīyas, later on known as Vātsīputrīya-Sāṃmitīyas,¹ became the most prominent school of this group. The monks adhering to these schools were probably those Vajjiputtakas who submitted to the decisions of the Second Council and gave up their heresies as distinguished from those who preferred to remain apart and form a distinct Saṅgha of their own.² We do not hear much about this school in the early history of Buddhism excepting a few criticisms of its radical doctrine of the temporary existence of a self (prajñapti-sat-pudgala) apart from the five skandhas. This school became popular and most widespread during the reign of Harṣavardhana (606-647 A.D.) and it is said that the king's sister Rājyaśrī joined the school as a bhikṣuṇī. The Chinese travellers also testify to its wide popularity in India. The earliest evidence to the existence of this school is furnished by a Gupta inscription discovered at Sārnāth,³ which states that this school ousted the Sarvāstivādins about 300 A.D., who had established themselves there after supplanting the Theravādins. This inscription is interesting from more than one point of view. It shows that Sarnāth was a centre of the Theravāda group, the earliest popular school,¹ which gradually yielded its place to the next popular school, Sarvāstivāda. Though Sarvāstivāda retained its popularity and influence all over Northern India it had, at least at Sarnāth, given place to the Sāmmitīyas.