The emergence and development of Sarvast ivada

Abstract

The article tells about the history of the emergence and the further development of Sarvāstivāda. Sarvāstivāda is a Buddhist school of thought that created its own system of ontology and gnoseology — the evolved theory of dharmas. This theory represents a life of any living being as a stream of dharmas — ontological elements from which all the existence is made up. Sarvāstivāda is named so by reason of its basic philosophical principle “Sarvam asti” that means that all dharmas of present, past, future time are real and only they are real. The information about Sarvāstivāda that was derived from the Buddhist historical sources is analyzed in the article. The Buddhological problems which are connected with the attempts of firm dating of the events of the early Buddhist history are examined there.