The Bahuśrutīya () was one of the early Buddhist schools, according to early sources such as Vasumitra, the Śāriputraparipṛcchā, and other sources, and was a sub-group which emerged from the Mahāsāṃghika sect.
Etymology
The name
Bahuśrutīya means literally "those who have heard much", meaning "well-learned". The Chinese translation for the name of this sect,
Duowen Bu (多聞部), literally the "much-heard sect", also corresponds to this etymology. Vasumitra's history, the
Samayabhedoparacanaćakra, records the following explanation of the name and characteristics of the Bahuśrutīya sect:
- Broadly studying the Tripiṭaka
- And profoundly comprehending the Buddha's words;
- It is by these virtues that they are referred to
- By the name, the "Bahuśrutīya" sect.
Origins
Paramartha, a 6th-century monk from
Ujjain in
Central India, wrote that the founder of the Bahuśrutīya sect was named Yājñavalkya.
[Warder, A. K. Indian Buddhism. 2000. p. 267.] In Paramārtha's account, Yājñavalkya is said to have lived during the time of the Buddha, and to have heard his discourses, but was in a profound state of samādhi during the time of the Buddha's
parinirvana.
After Yājñavalkya emerged from this samādhi 200 years later, he discovered that the Mahāsāṃghikas were teaching only the superficial meaning of the sūtras, and he therefore founded the Bahuśrutīya sect in order to expound their full meaning.
Paramārtha links the origins of the Bahuśrutīya sect to the Mahāyāna teachings:[Walser, Joseph. Nāgārjuna in Context: Mahāyāna Buddhism and Early Indian Culture. 2005. pp. 51–52.]
Doctrines and canon
The translator Paramārtha wrote that the Bahuśrutīyas accepted both the
Hinayana and Mahāyāna teachings.
[Baruah, Bibhuti. Buddhist Sects and Sectarianism. 2008. p. 48.] According to Paramārtha, the Bahuśrutīya school was formed in order to fully embrace both "conventional truth" and "ultimate truth".
[Walser, Joseph. Nāgārjuna in Context: Mahāyāna Buddhism and Early Indian Culture. 2005. p. 52.] According to Sree Padma and Anthony Barber, the Bahuśrutīya understanding of this full exposition included the Mahāyāna teachings.
[Sree Padma. Barber, Anthony W. Buddhism in the Krishna River Valley of Andhra. 2008. p. 61.]
According to Vasumitra, the Bahuśrutīyas considered the Buddha's teachings of impermanence, suffering, emptiness, anatta, and Nirvana to be supramundane, while his expositions on other subjects were to be considered mundane.[Dutt, Nalinaksha. Buddhist Sects in India. 1998. p. 117.] K. Venkata Ramanan writes:[Ramanan, K. Venkata. Nāgārjuna's Philosophy. 1998. pp. 62–63.]
Like the other Mahāsāṃghika sects, the Bahuśrutīyas believed that Arhat were fallible.[Walser, Joseph. Nāgārjuna in Context: Mahāyāna Buddhism and Early Indian Culture. 2005. p. 218.]
Tattvasiddhi Śāstra
Overview
The
Tattvasiddhi Śāstra, also called the
Satyasiddhi Śāstra, is an extant
Abhidharma text written by Harivarman, a 4th-century monk from Central India. Harivarman is often thought to come from the Bahuśrutīya school, but the
Tattvasiddhi contains teachings more similar to those of the
Sautrantika Sarvastivada. This Abhidharma is now contained in the Chinese Buddhist canon in sixteen fascicles (
Taisho Tripitaka 1646).
[.] Paramārtha cites this Abhidharma text as containing a combination of Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna doctrines, and Joseph Walser agrees that this assessment is correct.
Ian Charles Harris also characterises the text as a synthesis of Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna, and notes that its doctrines are very close to those in Mādhyamaka and Yogāćāra works.
[Harris, Ian Charles. The Continuity of Madhyamaka and Yogacara in Indian Mahayana Buddhism. 1991. p. 99.]
The Tattvasiddhi includes the teaching of dharma-śūnyatā, the emptiness of phenomena.[Skilton, Andrew. A Concise History of Buddhism. 2004. pp. 91–92.] This text also mentions the existence of a Bodhisattva Piṭaka.[Williman, Charles. Dessein, Bart. Cox, Collett. Sarvastivada Buddhist Scholasticism. 1997. p. 9.]
Legacy in East Asia
The
Tattvasiddhi Śāstra maintained great popularity in
Chinese Buddhism,
[Warder, A. K. Indian Buddhism. 2000. p. 398.] and even lead to the formation of its own school of Buddhism in China, the
Satyasiddhi, or
Chéngshí Zōng (成實宗), which was founded in 412 CE.
[Nan, Huai-Chin. Basic Buddhism: Exploring Buddhism and Zen. 1997. p. 91.] As summarised by
Nan Huai-Chin:
[Nan, Huai-Chin. Basic Buddhism: Exploring Buddhism and Zen. 1997. p. 90.]
The Tattvasiddhi School taught a progression of twenty-seven stations for cultivating realisation, based upon the teachings of the Tattvasiddhi Śāstra. The Tattvasiddhi School took Harivarman as its founder in India, and Kumārajīva as the school's founder in China.[Nan, Huai-Chin. Basic Buddhism: Exploring Buddhism and Zen. 1997. p. 112.]
