contains the vinaya. With the phase of scholastic or
ABHIDHARMABuddhism during the last centuries B.C.E.
and the first centuries C.E., abhidharmawas added as
a third basket, but not all schools agreed with this clas-
sification. Even within the Sarvastivada there was a dif-
ference of opinion. One branch, the Vaibhasikas, who
were active in Kashmir from the third till the middle
of the seventh century C.E. and were long considered
to be the orthodoxy, said that the Abhidharmapitaka
was the Buddha’s word. The earlier and very diverse
western Sarvastivada groups in the Gandhara area did
not agree and considered only the sutras to be defin-
itive truth. These groups were called SAUTRANTIKA, as
opposed to Vaibhasika, and they did not have an
Abhidharmapitaka,only abhidharmaworks.
Dharmas, or factors
The factors or constituents of the dharma, the teach-
ings, are also called dharma(s). Such dharmas are
psychophysical factors, which flow according to the
natural process of dependent origination. Dharma the-
ory explains how the human being is a flux or contin-
uum (santana), without any permanent factor or soul
(atman). Existing reality is called the “realm of the real”
(dharmadhatu). Buddhism concerns itself with the
phenomenal, by which existence is recognized. This
phenomenal world is in constant change. Buddhism
sees all phenomena as formations (samskara), forma-
tive forces or volitions that are formed (samskrta) by
causes and conditions. Formation has an active and a
passive meaning. Factors (dharmas) are formed, but
sometimes at least one unformed or uncompounded
factor, NIRVANA, is recognized. The Sarvastivada,
which had a tremendous influence in northwestern In-
dia and in East Asia, distinguish three unformed or un-
compounded (asamskrta) factors. Everything that is an
obvious object of consciousness is a factor. A person,
just like the whole of existence, is a flux, a series of im-
permanent factors, but sentient life has a sentient ele-
ment: mind (manas) or consciousness. A human being
is a flow of material and immaterial factors set in mo-
tion by karma and controlled by the law of dependent
origination. Dharma theory explains how existence
functions in the context of a human continuum. It ex-
plains its ultimate factors and it contains the possibil-
ity of stopping this continuum.
Originally Buddhism used a threefold classification
of factors: (1) five SKANDHA(AGGREGATE), (2) twelve
bases or sense fields (ayatana), and (3) eighteen ele-
ments (dhatu). During the last centuries B.C.E., the
dharma theory developed considerably in abhidharma
Buddhism. The most influential dharma theory was
that of the diverse Sarvastivada schools. Other schools
either adopted most of the Sarvastivada dharma theory
(as did the Mahs ́asaka), introduced minor changes
(Dharmaguptaka), were influenced by it (Buddhaghosa
in fifth-century Theravada), reacted to it (Mahasam-
ghika, Madhyamaka), or built on it (Vijñanavada). The
Vaibhasikas in Kashmir inherited a fivefold classifica-
tion from their Gandharan brethren, who, after about
200 C.E., came to be called Sautrantikas. Even among
the western Sarvastivadins there was no general agree-
ment about the number of factors.Nevertheless, the Sarvastivada branch that was
most influential in Central and East Asia, in the Gan-
dharan part of northwestern India, and in Kashmir af-
ter the demise of the Vaibhasikas, was the branch that
ultimately based its classification on such texts as the
Abhidharmahrdaya(Heart of Scholasticism) and on the
Astagrantha(Eight Compositions), both probably from
the first century B.C.E. This branch used a fivefold clas-
sification as found in the Pañcavastuka(Five Things),
which was translated in China during the second cen-
tury C.E. and advocated a Buddhist version of the five
elements or modes that were popular at the time. The
Astagranthawas revised and renamed Jñanaprasthana
(Course of Knowledge) at the end of the second century
C.E. and became the central text or corpus (s ́arlra) for
the Vaibhasikas. The Abhidharmahrdayawas com-
mented on in the Mis ́rakabhidharmahrdaya(Sundry
Heart of Scholasticism), and this text was the basis of
Vasubandhu’s ABHIDHARMAKOS ́ABHASYA(Storehouse of
Abhidharma), which dates to the early fifth century.
The influence of the Abhidharmakos ́abhasya,or Kos ́a,
was and is considerable. When a Tibetan text was writ-
ten to instruct Khubilai’s Mongol crown prince in Bud-
dhism late in the thirteenth century, the manual was
based on the Kos ́a.However, the old classification in
five aggregates was never forgotten. When Skandhila,
a Gandharan living in “orthodox” Kashmir during the
fifth century, composed his Abhidharmavatara(Intro-
duction to Scholasticism), he classified the factors on the
basis of the five aggregates or skandhas,but added the
three unformed factors.The original threefold classification of dharmas
The earliest division of the factors was into five
skandha, twelve bases or sense fields (ayatana), and
eighteen elements (dhatu). The five aggregates
(skandhameans literally “bundles”) divide sentient life
into five psychophysical elements:DHARMA ANDDHARMAS