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Sabbatthivadins
to say that none of the above works are available in Sanskrit, nor have they been retranslated from Chinese or Tibetan into any of the modern European or Indian languages.
The Japanese scholar Mr Yamakami Sogen, late lecturer at Calcutta University, describes the doctrine of the Sabbatthivadins from the Chinese versions of the Abhidharmakosa, Mahavibhāṣāśāstra, etc., rather elaborately'. The following is a short sketch, which is borrowed mainly from the accounts given by Mr Sogen.
The Sabbatthivādins admitted the five skandhas, twelve ayatanas, eighteen dhātus, the three asamskṛta dharmas of pratisamkhyānirodha apratisamkhyānirodha and ākāśa, and the samskṛta dharmas (things composite and interdependent) of rūpa (matter), citta (mind), caitta (mental) and cittaviprayukta (nonmental). All effects are produced by the coming together (samskṛta) of a number of causes. The five skandhas, and the rūpa, citta, etc., are thus called samskṛta dharmas (composite things or collocations—sambhūyakāri). The rūpa dharmas are eleven in number, one citta dharma, 46 caitta dharmas and 14 cittaviprayukta samskāra dharmas (non-mental composite things); adding to these the three asamskṛta dharmas we have the seventyfive dharmas. Rūpa is that which has the capacity to obstruct the sense organs. Matter is regarded as the collective organism or collocation, consisting of the fourfold substratum of colour, smell, taste and contact. The unit possessing this fourfold substratum is known as paramāņu, which is the minutest form of rūpa. It cannot be pierced through or picked up or thrown away. It is indivisible, unanalysable, invisible, inaudible, untastable and intangible. But yet it is not permanent, but is like a momentary flash into being. The simple atoms are called dravyaparamāņu and the compound ones samghataparamāņu. In the words of Prof. Stcherbatsky "the universal elements of matter are manifested in their actions or functions. They are consequently more energies than substances." The organs of sense are also regarded as modifications of atomic matter. Seven such paramāņus combine together to form an aņu, and it is in this combined form only that they become perceptible. The combination takes place in the form of a cluster having one atom at the centre and
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1 Systems of Buddhistic Thought, published by the Calcutta University. 2 Sankara in his meagre sketch of the doctrine of the Sarvästivädins in his bhāṣya on the Brahma-sutras II. 2 notices some of the categories mentioned by Sogen.
