Sarvastivada: An Extinct Buddhist Sect That’s Still With Us

Last updated on: July 29, 2026 at 10:50 am by Barbara O'Brien

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Sarvastivada: An Extinct Buddhist Sect That’s Still With Us 2026-07-29T10:50:59-05:00 Barbara O'Brien

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Sarvastivada was a very early school of Buddhism whose precise origins are lost to history. Many of its teachings will seem odd to today’s Buddhists. Yet at its peak Sarvastivada was the most widespread and influential of all the Buddhist schools of its time. It was the mainstream of the mainstream, so to speak. And then it was gone. But traces of it linger in today’s Buddhism, often in surprising places.

First, here’s a quickie intro to early Buddhism: The records of very early Buddhism are fragmented and contradictory, so there’s a lot we have to guess at. The Buddha is commonly believed to have lived from about 563 BCE to about 483 BCE, but there are some ancient records that give both earlier and later dates. About a century after the life of the Buddha some monks, it is said, walked out of what’s called the Second Buddhist Council because of a dispute over monastic rules. This was the beginning of a Great Schism and the splitting up of Buddhism into diverse sects and schools and denominations. Originally there were two major divisions. One is called Mahāsāṃghika (“those of the great assembly”), and it is associated with the monks who walked out of the council. The other is Sthavira (“the elders”), which is associated with the monks who stayed at the council.

Within another century or two after the Second Buddhist Council, Sthavira had further divided into several schools, and one of these was Sarvastivada. Sarvastivada came to be dominant in what is now Kashmir in northwest India and also in ancient Gandhara and Bactria, or today’s northwestern Pakistan, northeastern Afghanistan, and parts of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. This positioned the school at a major crossroads of civilization that was well traveled by merchants on the Silk Road. And from there its teachings and influence spread far and wide.

For reference — today’s Buddhism has three major divisions, which are Theravada (the dominant school of southeast Asia), Mahayana (dominant in east Asia — China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam) and Vajrayana, which is found mostly in Tibetan Buddhism. Vajrayana Buddhism is largely built on Mahayana teachings, but the two traditions are distinguished by interpretations and practices. You can read more about these divisions in an earlier column, “The Quest for Original Buddhism.” Also, this column will wade into some difficult Buddhist doctrines that non-Buddhists are rarely exposed to, so I will explain them as simply as I can.

Sarvastivada: Primary Teachings

The name Sarvastivada is Sanskrit for “the teaching that all exists.” The school’s primary teaching was that conditioned dharmas continue to exist through the three time periods of past, present, and future. In Buddhism, the Sanskrit word dharmas in this context refers to phenomena or physical or mental factors that come into existence because of other conditioning factors. Which, if you look into it, is all compounded things, including beings.

The Buddha taught that all conditioned dharmas are impermanent, so the Sarvastivada teaching may seem, well, weird even to Buddhists. I know of no school of Buddhism teaching anything like that today. Yet the Sarvastivadins identified seventy-five conditioned dharmas that were substantially existent and endowed with intrinsic nature. These included the sense organs and corresponding objects, mind (citta), and a number of other factors that appear to add up to just about everything. But although these dharmas continue to exist through the three time periods, they were still considered by the Sarvastivadins to be impermanent. As I understand it, it was reasoned that the ever-existent dharmas are “impermanent” because they are active and functional only in the present moment.

The Sarvastivadins also developed an elaborate theory of causality in which various causal factors escort the existent but impermanent dharmas through the time periods. After enlightenment these causal factors keep the dharmas in future mode forever so that they don’t arise again in rebirth. Again, I am not aware of any present-day schools of Buddhism that teach anything even remotely resembling this.

Sarvastivada and Abhidharma Scholarship

As time went on the Sarvastivada school came to be known for its Abhidharma scholarship. The Abhidharma (or Abhidhamma in Pali) is one of the oldest Buddhist scriptures. According to tradition, the Buddha dictated the Abhidharma to his disciple Śariputra, who wrote it down. Scholars today believe it dates to no earlier than the 3rd century BCE, after the life of the Buddha. Even so, it has been incorporated into the classic collection of early Buddhist scriptures called the Tripitaka (or Tipitaka in Pali). The Pali Canon is the best-known version of this collection, although there have been others. As simply as I can explain it, the Abhidharma presents the characteristics of reality and the causal processes that govern all phenomena. It provides a theoretical framework for how the Buddha’s teachings “work.” It’s also been called an analysis of what makes up the universe, including people and how they experience their world.

At one time there were several versions of the Abhidharma, but the only complete versions that still exist are the one in the Pali Canon and the Sarvastivada Abhidharma, which has been preserved in Chinese translations of the mostly lost original Sanskrit. I understand there are considerable differences between the two versions, and we have no way to know which version might be closer to a hypothetical original. For more details I recommend the Abhidharma entry of the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. For an introduction to the Pali Abhidhamma, see The Abhidhamma in Practice.

Sarvastivada would inspire the formation of a number of sub-schools. These included the Mulasarvastivada (“the original Sarvastivada”), Vaibhasika (“those who follow treatises”), and Sautrantika (“those who rely on the sutras”). The names suggest some disagreements. Vaibhasika was very much into Abhidharma scholarship, while Sautrantika was said to have rejected the Abhidharma as not the authentic teachings of the Buddha and instead relied on the Buddha’s sutras, his sermons, for guidance. Some scholars have proposed that Sautrantika was more of a rebellious offshoot of Sarvastivada than a sub-school. Mulasarvastivada is most remembered today for its version of the Vinaya, the rules for the monastic order. The Mulasarvastivada Vinaya is the version of the Vinaya used today in Tibetan monastic orders.

The Mahayana Connection

The monk Vasubandhu (4th to 5th century CE) was one of the giants of early Buddhism. Vasubandhu originally was ordained as a Sarvastivada monk. He studied in both the Vaibhasika and Sautrantika sub-schools of Sarvastivada. And then he wrote the Abhidharmakosa, “Treasury of Abhidharma,” which presents the major points of the Vaibhasika Abhidharma. After that he wrote the Abhidharmakosa-bhasya, “A Treasury of Abhidharma, with Commentary,” which provides a broader view of Sarvastivada views, including those of the skeptical Sautrantikas. These two texts have provided modern scholars with an invaluable resource on the development of later Sthavira schools.

But then Vasubandhu encountered his brother, or possibly half-brother, Asanga, also a monk and scholar. And Asanga influenced Vasubandhu to convert to the growing not-Sthavira school of Mahayana. (I understand Tibetan tradition has Vasubandhu converting at an earlier point in his life, but I’m going with the academic scholars on this one.) As explained earlier, Mahayana today is the dominant form of Buddhism in east Asia — China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam. It includes several distinctive schools, including Zen and the Pure Land traditions. And it shares much of its doctrinal foundations with Tibetan Vajrayana.

Vasubandhu and Asanga are credited with developing the philosophical tradition of Yogacara, which is a major part of today’s Mahayana and Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. For Mahayana Buddhists, Yogacara effectively replaced the Abhidharma. It presents sophisticated models explaining how awareness and experience intersect. These models describe in detail how beings experience the world. This introduction to Yogacara is the least confusing one I could find online; it takes most of us a while to “get it.” Much of Vasubandhu’s work in the Abhidharmakosa-bhasya carried over into Yogacara, giving Mahayana enduring if unlikely roots in Sarvastivada.

The End of Sarvastivada

The Sarvastivada school dropped out of historical records after the 7th century. Mahayana Buddhism had come to dominate the region Sarvastivada temples occupied. The school also suffered increasing internal divisions. The final blow may have been the fall of the Kushan Empire, late in the 4th century. The Kushan emperors had been great patrons of Buddhism.

And Lots of Postscripts

It’s nearly certain it was Sarvastivada doctrines that Nagarjuna (c. 150—c. 250) was responding to in his Madhyamaka teachings. Madhyamaka is a foundation of today’s Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism that proposes all dharmas are forms of emptiness (sunyata) and devoid of intrinsic existence. I remember the first time I stumbled upon a discussion of Sarvastivada teachings of the existent dharmas. I swear I could hear the Heart Sutra being chanted in my head.

And then Yogacara also was absorbed into Mahayana. For quite some time Madhyamaka and Yogacara were an uneasy fit, however, as they appeared to disagree on some points. Later scholarship in China and Tibet worked out the discrepancies.

Sarvastivada’s most significant rival was another division of Sthavira called Vibhajyavada, “those who make distinctions.” Vibhajyavada appears to have emerged during the reign of Ashoka the Great, about 268 to 232 BCE. Vibhajyavada may have begun as a protest against Sarvastavada. The Vibhajyavadins disagreed with the “existing in three time periods” model. Scholars today have suggested that the “distinctions” they were making was about the dharmas of the past, present, and future. Vibhajyavāda proposed that no dharmas exist in the future, and what lingers in the past can only be actions that have yet to produce karmic effects. Otherwise, phenomena exist only in the present. Vibhajyavāda also faded away in India. But during the time of Ashoka it established itself in Sri Lanka, where it flourished. Today’s Theravada Buddhism evolved from the Sri Lankan Vibhajyavāda. This is the only extant school remaining of the Sthavira division.

I wanted to say something about what happened to Mahāsāṃghika, the early division formed by the monks who walked out of the Second Buddhist Council. People often assume it evolved into Mahayana, but it didn’t, exactly. Mahāsāṃghika and its sub-schools thrived for a time but eventually became extinct. However, there are some Mahayana teachings that may have originated in Mahāsāṃghika. In particular the Mahāsāṃghikas taught there was a root consciousness (Mula-Vijñāna) that may have been an antecedent of the Yogacara “storehouse consciousness” (Ālaya-Vijñāna). Mahayana appears to have roots in both Sthavira and Mahāsāṃghika.

Footprints of the Buddha, Gandhara, 2nd century CE. Yale University Art Gallery. In early Buddhist art it was common to depict the Buddha by just his footprints or by an empty chair. Photograph by Smuconlaw. Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

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About Barbara O'Brien

Barbara is the author of The Circle of the Way: A Concise History of Zen from the Buddha to the Modern World (Shambhala, 2019). You can read more about the author here.

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