Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c14.s3.1

c14.s3.1

Opposed to the Vibhajyavādins were the Sarvāstivādins, asserters of the reality of all things, and among them also we find a set of Ābhidhārmikas, who developed a philosophical literature of their own, while the school possessed a Vinaya and a Sutta collection on the same lines as the Pali Canon, possibly at first written in some Prakrit, but later certainly in Sanskrit. This Abhidharma literature begins with the Jñānaprasthāna of Kātyāyanīputra—variously dated at three hundred or five hundred years after the Parinirvāṇa—and its six ‘feet (pāda),’ Dharmaskandha by Ṣāriputra; Dhātukāya by Pūrṇa; Prajñāptiçāstra by Maudgalyāyana; Vijñānakāya by Devakṣema; Saṃgītiparyāya by Ṣāriputra; and Prakaraṇapāda by Vasumitra; though it has disappeared in its Sanskrit form save for odd fragments, it is preserved in a Chinese rendering.¹ Chinese records show how that the Jñānaprasthāna was brought by Saṅghadeva and Dharmapriya from Kashmir (A. D. 383) possibly in a Pali-like dialect, while Hiuen Tsang (A. D. 657) used a Sanskrit version. Some of the Sarvāstivādins clung to these texts as their sole authority; Dharmatrāta, Ghoṣaka, Vasumitra, and Buddhadeva are all criticized by the Vaibhāṣikas of Kashmir and Buddhadeva is apparently the teacher mentioned in a Mathurā inscription (perhaps 50 B. C.—A. D. 10). Dharmatrāta is traditionally, but apparently in error, placed much later, being a pupil of Āryadeva the Mahāyānist (perhaps A. D. 200), and Vasumitra is assigned to the time of a son of Kaniṣka (A. D. 100).² These data are insufficient to help us to any very definite idea as to the date of the Jñānaprasthāna and its supplements; no faith can be placed on the alleged authors, the titles being manifestly intended to convey the impression of extreme antiquity. But it is clear that the Abhidharma must go back to at least a century B. C. It is impossible to prove whether it preceded, as is at least possible, or was contemporary with, or subsequent to, the compilation of the Abhidhamma Piṭaka.