________________ Satra and Abhidharma 49 Sautrantika 'school, but takes the Samkrantivada as the branch of the Sarvastivada school. As in the case of several other schools, no work belonging to the Sautrantikas has come down to us. Therefore, our knowledge of their doctrines is derived solely from other sources. The Kathavatthu makes no reference to their doctrines. Vasumitra attributes five original doctrines to this school, all dealing with sankranti or santana,? which correspond to the doctrine of bija (seed) attributed to them in the Bhasya, Vsitti and the Sphutartha of Yasomitra. The Sarvadaasana-sangraha of Madhava attributes to them the doctrine of bahyanumeya-vada, which revolutionised the theory of perception and foreshadowed the beginnings of Buddhist Logic. Though the Sautrantikas existed since the time of the Buddha and survived as an influential school till the later phases of Buddhism, their major activities are to be seen only after the full ascendancy of the Vaibhashika school. Backing their arguments with the Sutra preachings, they arose chiefly in revolt against the Realism (dravyavada) of the Abhidharmikas and paved the way for the emergence of the Idealistic Mahayana schools and particularly that of the Vijnanavadi Buddhism. What are the particular Abhidharmika points that the Sautrantikas thought contrary to the sutra-preachings of the * Buddha ? An answer to this question can be found in a close comparison of the Sutras with the Abhidharma works of both the Theravada and Sarvastivada schools. Of these, only the Pali Abhidhamma works, together with their commentaries, have come down to us. The entire Abbidharma-pitaka of the Sarvastivadins, together with the Mahavibhasha, is lost in its original form and is preserved only in the Chinese and Tibetan translations. The few works of this school available to us, therefore, are the later works of Ghoshaka, Vasubandhu and Yasomitra, and our Dipa with its Vtitti. i See Masuda, J. op. cit. pp. 66-9. 4
