
Bahuśrutīya (
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
: बहुश्रुतीय) was one of the
early Buddhist schools
The early Buddhist schools refers to the History of Buddhism in India, Indian Buddhist "doctrinal schools" or "schools of thought" (Sanskrit: ''vāda'') which arose out of the early unified Buddhist monasticism, Buddhist monastic community (San ...
, according to early sources such as
Vasumitra, the ''Śāriputraparipṛcchā'', and other sources, and was a sub-group which emerged from the
Mahāsāṃghika
The Mahāsāṃghika (Brahmi script, Brahmi: 𑀫𑀳𑀸𑀲𑀸𑀁𑀖𑀺𑀓, "of the Great Sangha (Buddhism), Sangha", ) was a major division (nikāya) of the early Buddhist schools in India. They were one of the two original communities th ...
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 ''Samayabhedoparacanacakra'', records the following explanation of the name and characteristics of the Bahuśrutīya sect:
:Broadly studying the ''
Tripiṭaka
There are several Buddhist canons, which refers to the various scriptural collections of Buddhist sacred scriptures or the various Buddhist scriptural canons. ''
:And profoundly comprehending the Buddha's words;
:It is by these virtues that they are referred to
:By the name, the "Bahuśrutīya" sect.
Origins
Paramārtha, a 6th-century monk from
Ujjain
Ujjain (, , old name Avantika, ) or Ujjayinī is a city in Ujjain district of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the fifth-largest city in Madhya Pradesh by population and is the administrative as well as religious centre of Ujjain ...
in central
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
, wrote that the founder of the Bahuśrutīya sect was named Yājñavalkya. 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
Statue of a meditating Rishikesh.html" ;"title="Shiva, Rishikesh">Shiva, Rishikesh
''Samādhi'' (Pali and ), in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, is a state of meditative consciousness. In many Indian religious traditions, the cultivati ...
during the time of the Buddha's
parinirvāṇa. 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
Mahāyāna ( ; , , ; ) is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, Buddhist texts#Mahāyāna texts, texts, Buddhist philosophy, philosophies, and practices developed in ancient India ( onwards). It is considered one of the three main ex ...
teachings:
Doctrines and canon
The translator Paramārtha wrote that the Bahuśrutīyas accepted both the
Hīnayāna
Hīnayāna is a Sanskrit term that was at one time applied collectively to the '' Śrāvakayāna'' and '' Pratyekabuddhayāna'' paths of Buddhism.
This term appeared around the first or second century. The Hīnayāna is considered as the prelim ...
and Mahāyāna teachings. According to Paramārtha, the Bahuśrutīya school was formed in order to fully embrace both "conventional truth" and "ultimate truth." According to Sree Padma and Anthony Barber, the Bahuśrutīya understanding of this full exposition included the Mahāyāna teachings.
According to Vasumitra, the Bahuśrutīyas considered the Buddha's teachings of impermanence, suffering, emptiness,
anātman, and
Nirvāṇa to be supramundane, while his expositions on other subjects were to be considered mundane. K. Venkata Ramanan writes:
Like the other Mahāsāṃghika sects, the Bahuśrutīyas believed that arhats were fallible.
''Tattvasiddhi Śāstra''
Overview
The ''
Tattvasiddhi-Śāstra'', also called the ''Satyasiddhi Śāstra'', is an extant
abhidharma
The Abhidharma are a collection of Buddhist texts dating from the 3rd century BCE onwards, which contain detailed scholastic presentations of doctrinal material appearing in the canonical Buddhist scriptures and commentaries. It also refers t ...
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
Sautrāntika
The Sautrāntika or Sutravadin (, Suttavāda in Pali; ; ; ) were an early Buddhist school generally believed to be descended from the Sthavira nikāya by way of their immediate parent school, the Sarvāstivādins.Westerhoff, Jan, The Golden Ag ...
Sarvāstivādins. This abhidharma is now contained in the
Chinese Buddhist canon
The Chinese Buddhist canon refers to a traditional collection of Chinese language Buddhist texts which are the central canonical works of East Asian Buddhism. The traditional term for the canon is Great Storage of Scriptures ().Jiang Wu, "The ...
in sixteen fascicles (
Taishō Tripiṭaka
The ''Taishō Tripiṭaka'' (; Japanese: ''Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō''; " Taishō Revised Tripiṭaka") is a definitive edition of the Chinese Buddhist canon and its Japanese commentaries used by scholars in the 20th century. The name is abbr ...
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 characterizes the text as a synthesis of Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna, and notes that its doctrines are very close to those in
Mādhyamaka and
Yogācāra
Yogachara (, IAST: ') is an influential tradition of Buddhist philosophy and psychology emphasizing the study of cognition, perception, and consciousness through the interior lens of meditation, as well as philosophical reasoning (hetuvidyā). ...
works.
The ''Tattvasiddhi'' includes the teaching of ''
dharma
Dharma (; , ) is a key concept in various Indian religions. The term ''dharma'' does not have a single, clear Untranslatability, translation and conveys a multifaceted idea. Etymologically, it comes from the Sanskrit ''dhr-'', meaning ''to hold ...
-
śūnyatā
''Śūnyatā'' ( ; ; ), translated most often as "emptiness", " vacuity", and sometimes "voidness", or "nothingness" is an Indian philosophical concept. In Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, and other Indian philosophical traditions, the concept ...
'', the emptiness of phenomena. This text also mentions the existence of a ''
Bodhisattva
In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a person who has attained, or is striving towards, '' bodhi'' ('awakening', 'enlightenment') or Buddhahood. Often, the term specifically refers to a person who forgoes or delays personal nirvana or ''bodhi'' in ...
Piṭaka''.
Legacy in East Asia
The ''Tattvasiddhi Śāstra'' maintained great popularity in
Chinese Buddhism
Chinese Buddhism or Han Buddhism ( zh, s=汉传佛教, t=漢傳佛教, first=t, poj=Hàn-thoân Hu̍t-kàu, j=Hon3 Cyun4 Fat6 Gaau3, p=Hànchuán Fójiào) is a Chinese form of Mahayana Buddhism. The Chinese Buddhist canonJiang Wu, "The Chin ...
, and even lead to the formation of its own school of Buddhism in China, the
Tattvasiddhi School, or ''Chéngshí Zōng'' (成實宗), which was founded in 412 CE. As summarized by
Nan Huai-Chin:
The Tattvasiddhi School taught a progression of twenty-seven stations for cultivating realization, based upon the teachings of the ''Tattvasiddhi Śāstra''. The Tattvasiddhi School took Harivarman as its founder in India, and
Kumārajīva
Kumārajīva (Sanskrit: कुमारजीव; , 344–413 CE) was a bhikkhu, Buddhist monk, scholar, missionary and translator from Kucha (present-day Aksu City, Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang, China). Kumārajīva is seen as one of the great ...
as the school's founder in China. The Satyasiddhi School is counted among the Ten Schools of
Tang Dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...
Buddhism. From China, the Satyasiddhi School was transmitted to Japan in 625 CE, where it was known as ''Jōjitsu-shu'' (成實宗). The Japanese Satyasiddhi school is known as one of the six great schools of Japanese Buddhism in the
Nara period
The of the history of Japan covers the years from 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remained the capita ...
(710-794 CE).
[Nan, Huai-Chin. ''Basic Buddhism: Exploring Buddhism and Zen.'' 1997. p. 112]
References
{{Buddhism topics
Nikaya schools
Mahāsāṃghika
Early Buddhist schools