Abhidharmadipa with Vibhasaprabha Vrutti

Author(s): P S Jaini
Publisher: Kashi Prasad Jayaswal Research Institute

Page 83

68 Introduction thirteen new dharmas called chitta-viprayukta-sainskara. Indeed, a majority of the controversies raised in the Bhashya and the Vritti deal with these sanskaras which the Sautrantikas treated as mere notions (prajnaptimatra). They reduced the 46 samskaras of the Vaibhashika to a number of twenty," consisting of ten kusala and ten akusala chetanas, more agreeing with the Sutra meaning of the samskara-skandha. Even the Abhidharmika division of the samskaras as maha-bhaumika etc. was not recognised by them. They discarded this grouping when it went against the Sutras as is shown by their insistence on treating the sparsa and vedana (two maha-bhaumika dharmas) as cause and effect, and hence not operating simultaneously in one moment. In the Theravada Abhidharma nirvana alone is called asamskrita-dharma. The Vaibhashikas enumerated one more, viz., akasa. They also maintained the reality of past and future dharmas. The Sautrantika, on the basis of a sutra, rejected all these as prajnaptimatra and relegated them to the position of the pudgala. By his bold advocacy of the theory of prajnapti and its extension to a majority of reals (dravya) including the asamskrita dharmas of the Abhidharmika, the Sautrantika not only asserted his critical spirit but also established the superiority of the Sutras over the Abhidharma. From this theory flowed his doctrine of vikalpa (conceptual construction), his theory of perception and lastly the revolutionary theory of bahyanumeyavada, which was but one step towards the more critical subjective idealism of the Vijnanavada Buddhism. 1 For the dharmas enumerated by the Sautrantikas, see Appendix D of the Alambana.pariksha. 2 panchemani bhikshavah samjna-matram pratijna-matram vyavaharamatram samvriti-matram yad utatito' dhvanagato' dhvakasam nirvanam pudgalas cheti", quoted in the Madhyamika-karika-Vrini by Chandrakirti, p. 393. For details see The Central Philosophy of Buddhism, p. 82.