Musicalkd at 22:55, 15 October 2025

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{{Short description|Early Buddhist school}}
[[File:Buddha_Ajanta.jpg|thumb|right|Cave temple associated with the [[Mahāsāṃghika]] sect. [[Ajanta Caves|Ajaṇṭā Caves]], [[Maharashtra|Mahārāṣtra]], [[India]].]]
{{EarlyBuddhism}}
The '''Bahuśrutīya''' ({{Langx|sa|बहुश्रुतीय}}) 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'' ({{Lang|zh|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|Paramārtha]], a 6th-century monk from [[Ujjain]] in [[Central India]], wrote that the founder of the Bahuśrutīya sect was named Yājñavalkya.<ref name=":0">Warder, A. K. ''Indian Buddhism''. 2000. p. 267.</ref> 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 [[samadhi (Buddhism)|samādhi]] during the time of the Buddha's [[parinirvana|parinirvāṇa]].<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref name=":0" />

Paramārtha links the origins of the Bahuśrutīya sect to the [[Mahāyāna]] teachings:<ref>Walser, Joseph. ''Nāgārjuna in Context: Mahāyāna Buddhism and Early Indian Culture.'' 2005. pp. 51–52.</ref>

{{quote|In the Mahāsāṃghika school this [[Arhat]] recited completely the superficial sense and the profound sense. In the latter, there was the sense of the Mahāyāna. Some did not believe it. Those who believed it recited and retained it. There were in the Mahāsāṃghika school those who propagated these teachings, and others who did not propagate them. The former formed a separate school called "Those who have heard much" (Bahuśrutīya). [...] It is from this school that there has come the ''Satyasiddhiśāstra''. That is why there is a mixture of ideas from the Mahāyāna found there.}}

==Doctrines and canon==
The translator Paramārtha wrote that the Bahuśrutīyas accepted both the [[Hinayana|Hīnayāna]] and Mahāyāna teachings.<ref>Baruah, Bibhuti. ''Buddhist Sects and Sectarianism.'' 2008. p. 48.</ref> According to Paramārtha, the Bahuśrutīya school was formed in order to fully embrace both "conventional truth" and "ultimate truth".<ref name=":3">Walser, Joseph. ''Nāgārjuna in Context: Mahāyāna Buddhism and Early Indian Culture.'' 2005. p. 52.</ref> According to Sree Padma and Anthony Barber, the Bahuśrutīya understanding of this full exposition included the Mahāyāna teachings.<ref>Sree Padma. Barber, Anthony W. ''Buddhism in the Krishna River Valley of Andhra.'' 2008. p. 61.</ref>

According to Vasumitra, the Bahuśrutīyas considered the Buddha's teachings of impermanence, suffering, emptiness, [[anatta|anātman]], and [[Nirvana|nirvāṇa]] to be supramundane, while his expositions on other subjects were to be considered mundane.<ref>Dutt, Nalinaksha. ''Buddhist Sects in India.'' 1998. p. 117.</ref> K. Venkata Ramanan writes:<ref>Ramanan, K. Venkata. ''Nāgārjuna's Philosophy.'' 1998. pp. 62–63.</ref>

{{quote|The credit of having kept alive the emphasis on the ultimacy of the unconditioned reality by drawing attention to the non-substantiality of the basic elements of existence (''dharma-śūnyatā'') belongs to the Mahāsāṃghikas. Every branch of these clearly drew the distinction between the mundane and the ultimate, came to emphasize the non-ultimacy of the mundane and thus facilitated the fixing of attention on the ultimate. The Bahuśrutīyas distinguished the mundane from the transmundane teachings of the Buddha and held that the latter directly lead one to freedom from defilements.}}

Like the other Mahāsāṃghika sects, the Bahuśrutīyas believed that [[Arhat|arhats]] were fallible.<ref>Walser, Joseph. ''Nāgārjuna in Context: Mahāyāna Buddhism and Early Indian Culture.'' 2005. p. 218.</ref>

==''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|Sautrāntika]] [[Sarvastivada|Sarvāstivādins]]. This Abhidharma is now contained in the [[Chinese Buddhist canon]] in sixteen fascicles ([[Taisho Tripitaka|Taishō Tripiṭaka]] 1646).<ref>{{citation |title=The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalog (K 966) |url=http://www.acmuller.net/descriptive_catalogue/files/k0966.html}}.</ref> Paramārtha cites this Abhidharma text as containing a combination of Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna doctrines, and Joseph Walser agrees that this assessment is correct.<ref name=":3" /> 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 [[Yogācāra|Yogāćāra]] works.<ref>Harris, Ian Charles. ''The Continuity of Madhyamaka and Yogacara in Indian Mahayana Buddhism.'' 1991. p. 99.</ref>

The ''Tattvasiddhi'' includes the teaching of ''[[Dharma (Buddhism)|dharma]]-[[śūnyatā]]'', the emptiness of phenomena.<ref>Skilton, Andrew. ''A Concise History of Buddhism.'' 2004. pp. 91–92.</ref> This text also mentions the existence of a ''[[Bodhisattva]] Piṭaka''.<ref>Williman, Charles. Dessein, Bart. Cox, Collett. ''Sarvastivada Buddhist Scholasticism.'' 1997. p. 9.</ref>

===Legacy in East Asia===
The ''Tattvasiddhi Śāstra'' maintained great popularity in [[Chinese Buddhism]],<ref>Warder, A. K. ''Indian Buddhism''. 2000. p. 398.</ref> and even lead to the formation of its own school of Buddhism in China, the [[Satyasiddhi|Tattvasiddhi School]], or ''Chéngshí Zōng'' (成實宗), which was founded in 412 CE.<ref name=":1">Nan, Huai-Chin. ''Basic Buddhism: Exploring Buddhism and Zen.'' 1997. p. 91.</ref> As summarised by [[Nan Huai-Chin]]:<ref name=":2">Nan, Huai-Chin. ''Basic Buddhism: Exploring Buddhism and Zen.'' 1997. p. 90.</ref>

{{quote|Various Buddhist schools sprang to life, such as the school based on the three Mādhyamaka śāstras, the school based on the ''[[Abhidharma-kosa|Abhidharmakośa]]'', and the school based on the ''Satyasiddhi Śāstra''. These all vied with each other, producing many wondrous offshoots, each giving rise to its own theoretical system.}}

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.<ref name=":1" /> The Satyasiddhi School is counted among the Ten Schools of [[Tang Dynasty]].<ref name=":2" /> From China, the Satyasiddhi School was transmitted to Japan in 625 CE, where it was known as {{Nihongo|2=成實宗|3=Jōjitsu-shū}}. The Japanese Satyasiddhi school is known as one of the six great schools of Japanese Buddhism in the [[Nara period]] (710–794 CE).<ref>Nan, Huai-Chin. ''Basic Buddhism: Exploring Buddhism and Zen.'' 1997. p. 112.</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Buddhism topics}}

[[Category:Nikaya schools]]
[[Category:Mahāsāṃghika]]
[[Category:Early Buddhist schools]]

Bahuśrutīya - Revision history

Musicalkd at 22:55, 15 October 2025