Vātsīputrīya

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Vātsīputrīya (Skt., followers of Vātsīputra). A school of early Buddhism. According to tradition Vātsīputra was a Mahāsaṃghika who claimed to have supernaturally received an Abhidharmic text in nine sections from Śāriputra and Rāhula. This is known as the Śāriputra-Abhidharma. Vātsīputra probably lived in the early 3rd cent. BCE in Kośala (E. India) and it seems that the Vātsīputrīyas flourished in that region until the 11th cent. CE.

Their texts, which do not survive, were written in Apabhraṃśa and treat positively the notion of personal identity (pudgala). The Vātsīputrīyas were therefore Pudgalavādins.

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Vātsīputrīya

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