A brief survey: Sarvāstivāda school in buddhism philosophy

The rise of the Sarvāstivāda-school in Buddhism Philosophy as a distinct group dates back to the 2nd to 1st centuries BCE. This school have been of major importance in the development of Śrāvakayāna (Hinayana) Buddhism, as well as for the origin of the Mahayana. It was one of the parent lines in the genealogic tree of the Eighteen Schools, consistently identified in traditional adoxography as one of the earlier Sthavira groups. It is known from the inscription that Sarvāstivāda's greatest strength is the Northwest, from Mathura to Afghanistan and the Central Asian desert. But they are also known in East and South India. Their influence extended to Indonesia, and, indirectly, to China. The Sarvastivadin canon is a Tripitaka only in the sense that it was conceived as having three parts (Sutra, Vinaya, and Abhidharma). According to Sarvāstivāda, although everything is impermanent, the basic building blocks of reality, including some attributes and relationships, are significant and real. These significant entities (Drainvyasat) are called dharmas. Dharmas’s Sarvāstivāda philosophy is one of the central conceptions of Buddhist Philosophy. It is in the light of this conception that Buddhism discloses itself as a metaphysical theory developed out of one fundamental principle, viz. the idea that existence is an interplay of elements of Matter, Mind, and Forces, which are technically called the term: “Dharmas”. The moral teaching of the path towards Nirvana is not something additional to this ontological doctrine; it is most intimately connected with it and identical with it.