SARV?STIV?DA AND M?LASARV?STIVADA

The term Sarv?stiv?da means "those who claim that everything exists"; M?lasarv?stiv?da means "root Sarv?stiv?da." The Sarv?stiv?da school, one of the largest and most important mainstream schools of Indian Buddhism, a subschool of the Sthavira branch, is first attested in inscriptions dating from the first century c.e. and was to become prominent throughout northern India and Central Asia, in particular in the northwestern regions of Kashmir and Gandh?ra and the north central region of Mathur?. Traditional sources connect each of these regions with a prominent early Sarv?stiv?da teacher: Kashmir with Madhy?ntika, and Mathur? with Upagupta. Later, both regions became strongholds of the Sarv?stiv?da school, but scholarly disagreement persists as to which region was the original home of the sect.

A substantial portion of the Sarv?stiv?da version of the Buddhist canon is preserved in Chinese translation, including the complete monastic disciplinary code (vinaya), a portion of the dialogues (s?tra), the complete collection of canonical scholastic treatises (abhidharma), as well as other postcanonical scholastic texts and commentaries that contain detailed examinations of virtually all aspects of early Indian Buddhist doctrine. The most important of these doctrinal discussions is the hallmark position, "everything exists" (sarvam asti), from which the name, Sarv?stiv?da, derives. Here the Sarv?stiv?dins suggest that "everything," that is all conditioned factors (dharma), "exist" and can exert causal efficacy in the three time periods of the past, present, and future. This position was attacked by rival Buddhist groups as a violation of the fundamental Buddhist position of anitya (impermanence). In response, the Sarv?stiv?dins developed an elaborate ontology that specified the manner in which past and future factors exist while attempting to preserve their impermanent character.

Multiple recensions of extant Sarv?stiv?da texts, as well as references in their scholastic literature to the variant doctrinal positions of different groups of Sarv?stiv?dins, indicate that internal divisions existed within the larger Sarv?stiv?da school. These divisions reflected regional, chronological, doctrinal, and possibly other differences. Regional variation might also explain the origin of one notable Sarv?stiv?da group, the M?lasarv?stiv?da. The M?lasarv?stiv?dins possessed their own separate monastic code, extant in Sanskrit, and can also possibly be affiliated with certain s?tra dialogues and other miscellaneous texts extant in Chinese translation. While the exact relationship between the Sarv?stiv?dins and the M?lasarv?stiv?dins remains unclear, it is possible that the M?lasarv?stiv?dins represented either a later phase in the development of the Sarv?stiv?da sectarian stream or perhaps specifically those Sarv?stiv?dins who were centered in the region of Mathur?. After the decline in prominence of the Sarv?stiv?dins within the northwestern region of Kashmir and Gandh?ra, the Sarv?stiv?dins of Mathur? may have adopted the name M?lasarv?stiv?da, or "root Sarv?stiv?da," to assert their status as the preeminent or original Sarv?stiv?dins.

See also:Mainstream Buddhist Schools; M?lasarv?stiv?da-vinaya

Bibliography

Cox, Collett. Disputed Dharmas: Early Buddhist Theories on Existence. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1995.

Frauwallner, Erich. Studies in Abhidharma Literature and the Origins of Buddhist Philosophical Systems, tr. Sophie Francis Kidd. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995.

Lamotte, Étienne. History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Saka Era, tr. Sara Webb-Boin. Louvain, Belgium: Peeters Press, 1988.

Collett Cox