The Bahuà Ârutëya () was one of the early Buddhist schools, according to early sources such as Vasumitra, the à ÂÃÂriputraparipá¹ÂcchÃÂ, and other sources, and was a sub-group which emerged from the MahÃÂsÃÂá¹Âghika sect.
The name Bahuà Ârutëya means literally "those who have heard much", meaning "well-learned". The Chinese translation for the name of this sect, Duowen Bu (), literally the "much-heard sect", also corresponds to this etymology. Vasumitra's history, the SamayabhedoparacanaÃÂakra, records the following explanation of the name and characteristics of the Bahuà Ârutëya sect:
ParamÃÂrtha, a 6th-century monk from Ujjain in Central India, wrote that the founder of the Bahuà Ârutëya sect was named YÃÂjñavalkya. In ParamÃÂrtha's account, YÃÂjñavalkya is said to have lived during the time of the Buddha, and to have heard his discourses, but was in a profound state of samÃÂdhi during the time of the Buddha's parinirvÃÂá¹Âa. After YÃÂjñavalkya emerged from this samÃÂdhi 200 years later, he discovered that the MahÃÂsÃÂá¹Âghikas were teaching only the superficial meaning of the sà «tras, and he therefore founded the Bahuà Ârutëya sect in order to expound their full meaning.
ParamÃÂrtha links the origins of the Bahuà Ârutëya sect to the MahÃÂyÃÂna teachings:
The translator ParamÃÂrtha wrote that the Bahuà Ârutëyas accepted both the HënayÃÂna and MahÃÂyÃÂna teachings. According to ParamÃÂrtha, the Bahuà Ârutëya school was formed in order to fully embrace both "conventional truth" and "ultimate truth". According to Sree Padma and Anthony Barber, the Bahuà Ârutëya understanding of this full exposition included the MahÃÂyÃÂna teachings.
According to Vasumitra, the Bahuà Ârutëyas considered the Buddha's teachings of impermanence, suffering, emptiness, anÃÂtman, and nirvÃÂá¹Âa to be supramundane, while his expositions on other subjects were to be considered mundane. K. Venkata Ramanan writes:
Like the other MahÃÂsÃÂá¹Âghika sects, the Bahuà Ârutëyas believed that arhats were fallible.
The Tattvasiddhi à ÂÃÂstra, also called the Satyasiddhi à ÂÃÂstra, is an extant Abhidharma text written by Harivarman, a 4th-century monk from Central India. Harivarman is often thought to come from the Bahuà Ârutëya school, but the Tattvasiddhi contains teachings more similar to those of the SautrÃÂntika SarvÃÂstivÃÂdins. This Abhidharma is now contained in the Chinese Buddhist canon in sixteen fascicles (Taishà  Tripiá¹Âaka 1646). ParamÃÂrtha cites this Abhidharma text as containing a combination of HënayÃÂna and MahÃÂyÃÂna doctrines, and Joseph Walser agrees that this assessment is correct. Ian Charles Harris also characterises the text as a synthesis of HënayÃÂna and MahÃÂyÃÂna, and notes that its doctrines are very close to those in MÃÂdhyamaka and YogÃÂÃÂÃÂra works.
The Tattvasiddhi includes the teaching of dharma-à Âà «nyatÃÂ, the emptiness of phenomena. This text also mentions the existence of a Bodhisattva Piá¹Âaka.
The Tattvasiddhi à ÂÃÂstra maintained great popularity in Chinese Buddhism, and even lead to the formation of its own school of Buddhism in China, the Tattvasiddhi School, or ChéngshàZà Âng (æÂÂ實å®Â), which was founded in 412 CE. As summarised by Nan Huai-Chin:
The Tattvasiddhi School taught a progression of twenty-seven stations for cultivating realisation, based upon the teachings of the Tattvasiddhi à ÂÃÂstra. The Tattvasiddhi School took Harivarman as its founder in India, and KumÃÂrajëva as the school's founder in China. The Satyasiddhi School is counted among the Ten Schools of Tang Dynasty. From China, the Satyasiddhi School was transmitted to Japan in 625 CE, where it was known as . The Japanese Satyasiddhi school is known as one of the six great schools of Japanese Buddhism in the Nara period (710âÂÂ794 CE).