of later
Indian Philosophy, for none of them are even referred to in any
of the systems of Hindu thought. The only schools of Buddhism
with which other schools of philosophical thought came in direct
contact, are the Sarvastivadins including the Sautrantikas and
the Vaibha@sikas, the Yogacara or the Vijnanavadins and the
Madhyamikas or the S'unyavadins. We do not know which of the
diverse smaller schools were taken up into these four great schools,
the Sautrantika, Vaibha@sika, Yogacara and the Madhyamika
schools. But as these schools were most important in relation
to the development of the different systems in Hindu thought,
it is best that we should set ourselves to gather what we can
about these systems of Buddhistic thought.

When the Hindu writers refer to the Buddhist doctrine in
general terms such as "the Buddhists say" without calling them
the Vijnanavadins or the Yogacaras and the S'unyavadins,
they often refer to the Sarvustivudins by which they mean
both the Sautruntikas and the Vaibhu@sikas, ignoring the difference
that exists between these two schools. It is well to
mention that there is hardly any evidence to prove that the
Hindu writers were acquainted with the Theravuda doctrines

114

as expressed in the Pali works. The Vaibha@sikas and the Sautrantikas
have been more or less associated with each other. Thus
the _Abhidharmakos'as'astra_ of Vasubandhu who was a Vaibha@sika
was commented upon by Yas'omitra who was a Sautrantika. The
difference between the Vaibha@sikas and the Sautrantikas that
attracted the notice of the Hindu writers was this, that the former
believed that external objects were directly perceived, whereas
the latter believed that the existence of the external objects could
only be inferred from our diversified knowledge [Footnote ref 1].
Gu@naratna (fourteenth century A.D.) in his commentary
_Tarkarahasyadipika on @Sa@ddars'anasamuccaya_ says that the Vaibhasika
was but another name of the Aryasammitiya school. According to
Gu@naratna the Vaibha@sikas held that things existed for four moments,
the moment of production, the moment of existence, the moment of
decay and the moment of annihilation. It has been pointed out
in Vastlbandhu's _Abhidharmakos'a_ that the Vaibha@sikas believed
these to be four kinds of forces which by coming in combination
with the permanent essence of an entity produced its impermanent
manifestations in life (see Prof. Stcherbatsky's translation
of Yas'omi