The à ÂÃÂlistamba Sà «tra ("rice stalk" or "rice sapling sà «tra") is an early Buddhist text that shows a few unique features which indicate a turn to the early MahÃÂyÃÂna. It thus has been considered one of the first MahÃÂyÃÂna sà «tras. According to N. Ross Reat, the sutra could date as far back as 200 BCE. It is possible that this sutra represents a period of Buddhist literature before the MahÃÂyÃÂna had diverged significantly from the doctrines of the Early Buddhist schools.
Three commentaries on the sutra traditionally attributed to NÃÂgÃÂrjuna also survive in Tibetan (Peking nos. 5466, 5485, 5486). There is also a commentary attributed to Kamalaà Âëla (eighth century).
While the à ÂÃÂlistamba does not survive fully in Sanskrit, it is the most widely quoted sutra in MahÃÂyÃÂna texts on the topic of pratëtyasamutpÃÂda and thus about 90 percent of the material survives as various quotations in other Buddhist Sanskrit works. Therefore, the Sanskrit has been reconstructed by modern scholars (beginning with the work of Louis de La Vallée-Poussin, 1913). Many passages in this sutra have close parallels in the PÃÂli suttas (especially the MahÃÂtÃÂá¹Âha-sankhaya Sutta, M1:256-71). The à ÂÃÂlistamba also survives in six Chinese translations and in various Tibetan recensions, including some manuscripts from Dunhuang, and it is thus of great textual, historical and philological importance.
The à ÂÃÂlistamba Sà «tra shows that its proto-MahÃÂyÃÂna transmitters (possibly the MahÃÂsÃÂá¹Âghikas) knew and accepted a theory of dependent origination which is almost identical with that of the PÃÂli Canon. It also shows an intent to consolidate and systematize material that is found throughout the PÃÂli Canon with a few innovations, albeit conservative ones. For example, it applies a simile of seed and plants to the doctrine of dependent origination, something which is not found in the PÃÂli Canon. The core of the sutra is an "elaboration upon cause (hetu) in the subjective pratëtyasamutpÃÂda formula."
MahÃÂyÃÂna elements in the sutra include the fact that it is said to be given by the Bodhisattva Maitreya and that it ends stating that whoever understands dependent arising will become a perfectly enlightened Buddha. The sutra is also a work focusing on the attainment of the DharmakÃÂya Buddha, stating "Whoever, monks, sees conditioned arising sees Dharma, and whoever sees Dharma sees the Buddha" (a combination of two well known statements in the PÃÂli suttas). The sutra also seems to move closer to the MahÃÂyÃÂna view that reality is illusory, using the term mÃÂyÃÂ and also similes using reflections, which would become widely used to illustrate illusoriness in the MahÃÂyÃÂna sutras.
N. Ross Reat notes that this indicates that the early MahÃÂyÃÂna tendency was not "self-consciously schismatic" but was simply one of the many attempts to systematize and elaborate on the Buddha's teachings. While some schools chose to incorporate these systematizations into Abhidharma texts, the proto-MahÃÂyÃÂna chose to incorporate them into sutras.
There are three commentaries on the text: