The History of Buddhist Thought c25.s1.4

c25.s1.4

This first began in the Abhidharma schools. Besides the Sarvāstivādin group the chief schools were the Sautrāntikas and the Sāmmitīyas.² Of these we have no complete accounts, but the *Abhidharmakośa* discusses many of their views. The author Vasubandhu undertook to expound Sarvāstivāda doctrine, though he appears to have been inclined to the Sautrāntikas. The name Sautrāntika implies that they rejected the Abhidharma works as an authority, and accepted only the *sūtrāntas*. The Sāmmitīyas are best known for holding, like the Vātsīputrīyas, the pudgala doctrine, the view that though the individual does not exist apart from his parts, yet he is something more than the mere sum of them. Another important Hīnayāna school is well known as the Mahāsanghika, whose buddhological doctrines, if not the school itself, became merged in Mahāyāna.