The PudgalavÃÂda (Sanskrit: "Personalism"; Pali: PuggalavÃÂda; ; ) was a Buddhist philosophical view and also refers to a group of NikÃÂya Buddhist schools (mainly known as VÃÂtsëputrëyas) that arose from the Sthavira NikÃÂya. The school is believed to have been founded by the elder VÃÂtsëputra in the third century BCE. They were a widely influential school in India and became particularly popular during the reign of emperor Harshavadana (606âÂÂ647 CE). Harsha's sister Rajyasri was said to have joined the school as a nun. According to Dan Lusthaus, they were "one of the most popular mainstream Buddhist sects in India for more than a thousand years".
The PudgalavÃÂdins asserted that while there is no ÃÂtman, there exists a pudgala (person) or sattva (being) which is neither a conditioned dharma nor an unconditioned dharma. This doctrine of the person was their method of accounting for karma, rebirth, and nirvÃÂá¹Âa. For the PudgalavÃÂdins, the pudgala was what underwent rebirth through successive lives in saá¹ÂsÃÂra and what experiences nirvÃÂá¹Âa. They defended this view through philosophical argument as well as scriptural citation. According to Thiá»Ân Châu and Richard Gombrich, they used the BhÃÂrahÃÂrasà «tras as a major reference for their view. This text states that the person (pudgala) is the bearer of the five aggregates, and that the taking up of them is craving and suffering:
The KathÃÂvatthu also mentions that the PudgalavÃÂdins relied on the following statements by the Buddha: "There is a person who exerts for his own good" and "There appears a person who is reborn for the good and happiness of many, for showing compassion to the world of beings." The PudgalavÃÂdins held that this person was "inexpressible" and indeterminate in its relation to the five aggregates and could not be said to be neither the same as the aggregates nor different. However, the person could not be denied entirely, for if this were so, nothing would get reborn and nothing would be the object of loving-kindness meditation. Thus, according to L. S. Cousins:<blockquote>The difference is that for the voidist the person is a label for the aggregates experienced as objects of consciousness whereas for the personalist the relationship between the person and those objects cannot be described as either the same nor different.</blockquote>Thus this pudgala was the subject of experiences, the doer of wholesome and unwholesome actions, and the experiencer of karma, transmigration and nirvÃÂá¹Âa. Yet it was also "indefinable" (avÃÂktavya), neither a conditioned (saá¹Âská¹Âta) nor an unconditioned dharma (nirvÃÂá¹Âa) and neither the same as nor different from the five aggregates. However, as Thiá»Ân Châu notes in his survey of their literature, the PudgalavÃÂdins carefully developed this theory especially to be compatible with anÃÂtman and the Middle Way and thus the pudgala is "not an absolute reality totally separated from compounded things."
The Abhidharmakoà Âa shows how the PudgalavÃÂdins explained their theory by using the analogy of fire and fuel. The five aggregates are the fuel and the pudgala the fire. The fire exists as long as there is fuel, but it is not the same as the fuel and has properties that the fuel does not. They are co-existent and the fuel (aggregates) are the support for the fire (pudgala), and thus are not the same nor wholly different. For the PudgalavÃÂdins, if one says that the person is the same as the aggregates (the reductionist Buddhist view of other schools), this is like saying fire and fuel are the same thing, which is one mistake. On the other hand, if one says that fire and fuel are totally different, this is like saying fire does not depend on fuel, a second mistake (related to non-Buddhist views). Thus they took a middle road between these and argued for a person which is neither identical to the aggregates nor different from them. They sought to refute the view of other Buddhists that the aggregates and the person were the same. They held that, at death when the aggregates are destroyed, the person would then also be destroyed, thus not be reborn. They also believed it contradicted the Buddha's words i.e. "the bearer of the burden" exists.
The KathÃÂvatthu also mentions that the pudgala can be likened to what is called a being (sattva) and also to what is called jiva (life force), but that it is neither identical nor different from the body (kaya). One PudgalavÃÂdin text explains the nature of this relationship as being based on clinging or appropriation (upÃÂdÃÂna):<blockquote>The designation of appropriation (upÃÂdÃÂna-prajñapti) is the designation of life (jiva) (which is) internal appropriation (upÃÂdÃÂna) in the present and is composed of the aggregates (skandha), elements (dhÃÂtu) and domains (ÃÂyatana); that is to say that the phenomena of appropriation concerning the internal life in the present, which is formed by compounded things â (saá¹ÂskÃÂra) and the fetters is what is called the designation of appropriation.</blockquote>The PudgalavÃÂdins also seem to have held that the liberated person exists even after parinirvÃÂá¹Âa in a state of supreme bliss, or as Thiá»Ân Châu notes, they saw nirvÃÂá¹Âa as "a transcendental domain" and an "existence in the beyond".
According to the PudgalavÃÂdin text known as the Traidharmakaà ÂÃÂstra, the pudgala can be designated in three ways, called the three prajñaptis:
Regarding the first form of designation, Dan Lusthaus adds that:<blockquote>If the appropriator is something different from the skandhas themselves, then there is a sixth skandha, which is doctrinally impermissible. If the skandhas appropriate themselves, that leads to a vicious cycle of infinite regress. Hence, the VÃÂtsëputrëya argue, the nominal person (pudgala) is neither the same as nor different from the skandhas. It is a heuristic fiction that avoids these unwarranted consequences and lends coherence by also corresponding to how actual persons experience themselvesâÂÂthat is, as distinct individuals continuous with, but not absolutely identical to or reducible to, their own pasts and futures.</blockquote>Lusthaus also explains their reasoning for the second and third designations as follows:<blockquote>But what remains constant or continuous between such [past and future] lives? If it is a self-same invariant identity, then this would indeed be a case of atmavada, a view the VÃÂtsëputrëyas, like all Buddhists, reject. In what sense would someone be the same or different from the person in one's previous life? If completely different, then to posit a continuity between them is incoherent. If the same, then their real discontinuities are ignored, leading to a form of eternalism, another impermissible view for Buddhists. Hence, they are neither the same nor different, but linked by a fictional pudgala. Finally, Buddhist practice leads to nirvana; but who attains this? If there is an integral individual that ceases on attaining nirvana, then this would entail the unwarranted view of annihilationalism. If there is no cessation of the karmic individual, then there is no nirvana. Both extremes, though implicit in standard Buddhist formulations, render Buddhism itself incoherent, a problem only solved, the VÃÂtsëputrëyas argue, if one admits the fictional pudgala implicit in standard Buddhist doctrine.</blockquote>With this system, PudgalavÃÂdins held that they could explain karmic moral retribution and personal identity by positing an ineffable (avaktavya) dharma that avoids falling into the extremes of annihilation (ucceda) and eternity (sasvata). One PudgalavÃÂda text affirms that this doctrine is a Middle Way thus:<blockquote>If the pudgala could be described in terms of existence or non-existence, one would fall into nihilism (ucchedadristi) or eternalism (sasvatadrsti), but the Buddha does not allow us to uphold there two opinions. If one says that the pudgala does not exist, that is committing a fault in the order of the questions to be avoided. That expression is not justified. Why? If one affirms that no pudgala exists, that is a fake view (mithyadrsti). If (on the contrary), one affirms that the pudgala exists (conditionally), that is a right view (samyagdrsti). That is why it is possible to say that the pudgala exists.</blockquote>
Because they felt that VÃÂtsëputrëya views were close to the view of a self or ÃÂtman, they were sharply criticised by the VibhajyavÃÂdins (a record of this is found in the TheravÃÂdin KathÃÂvatthu), as well as by the SarvastivÃÂdins (in the Vijñanakaya), Sautrantikas (most famously in the Abhidharmakoà Âa), and the Madhyamaka school (Candrakirti's Madhyamakavatara). The earliest source for the pudgala doctrinal controversy is the Puggalakatha of the KathÃÂvatthu, attributed to Moggaliputtatissa (c. third century BCE).
The Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu argued against the pudgala theory in his Abhidharmakoà Âa. Vasubandhu begins by stating that the VÃÂtsëputrëya hold that the pudgala 'is based' on the five aggregates, and that this could mean one of two things:
Vasubandhu argues then that 'pudgala' is identical to the aggregates and just a label for them. Vasubandhu first argues that we can either perceive the pudgala directly or perceive it by perceiving the aggregates. If the latter, then its just a label for aggregates. If we perceive it directly, then the aggregates would be based on the pudgala, not the other way around. Vasubandhu also attacks the view that we can perceive the pudgala by all six senses. If this is true, then the pudgala is nothing but the five aggregates since all that the senses perceive is their direct sense impressions and nothing more.
According to Thich Thien Chau, other secondary theses of the personalist VÃÂtsëputrëya-Saá¹Âmitëyas include:
The school had a Tripiá¹Âaka, with Sà «tra Piá¹Âaka (in four ÃÂgamas), Vinaya Piá¹Âaka and Abhidharma Piá¹Âakas, like other early Buddhist schools. Only four of their texts survive in Chinese translation:
One surviving PudgalavÃÂda text is the Traidharmakaà ÂÃÂstra (Taishà  Tripiá¹Âaka XXV, 1506 pp. 15c-30a), an Abhidharma work which was translated twice into Chinese. The text mentions that lack of knowledge also includes lack of knowledge of the indefinable (avyÃÂká¹Âta), which refers to the pudgala. Another PudgalavÃÂda text, the Sammatiyanikayaà ÂÃÂstra, put forth various arguments for and against the following propositions:
All of these views are ultimately rejected. The text claims that the pudgala is neither an existent nor a purely conceptual construct.
Peter Harvey agrees with criticisms leveled against the PudgalavÃÂdins by Moggaliputta-Tissa and Vasubandhu, and finds that there is no support in the Pali NikÃÂyas for their pudgala concept.
However, according to Bhiká¹£u Thiá»Ân Châu:<blockquote>The creation of the theory of the pudgala represents a reaction against the "depersonalization" of the abhidharmika tradition. The Pudgalavadins, on the other hand, tried to preserve the essence of the doctrine of substancelessness (anÃÂtmavÃÂda). The theory of the pudgala has been misinterpreted by the polemical literature; nevertheless, it offers much of doctrinal interest to Buddhist thinkers.</blockquote>Furthermore, Thiá»Ân Châu in his analysis of their doctrine adds:<blockquote>The Pudgalavadins were probably not satisfied with the interpretation according to which a man is merely the result of a combination of psycho-physical factors. For a man is something different from a chariot; the latter is only an assemblage of parts and separate pieces whereas the former is essentially a being with its totality of which the psycho-physical parts develop after conception and birth.</blockquote>According to Dan Lusthaus, "no Buddhist school has been more vilified by its Buddhist peers or misunderstood by modern scholars." Lusthaus argues that, far from promoting the view of a self (ÃÂtmavÃÂda), the VÃÂtsëputrëya position which can be seen in their surviving texts is that the pudgala is "a prajñapti (only a nominal existent) that is neither identical to nor different from the skandhas." Furthermore: <blockquote>The VÃÂtsëputrëya argument is that the pudgala is a necessary prajñapti since any theory of karma, or any theory that posits that individuals can make spiritual progress for themselves or can assist other individuals to do likewise, is incoherent without it. Karma means that an action done at one time has subsequent consequences for the same individual at a later time, or even a later life. If the positive and negative consequences of an action don't accrue to the self-same individual, then it would make no sense to speak of things like progress (who is progressing?), and Buddhist practice itself becomes incoherent. If there are no persons, then there is no one who suffers, no one who performs and reaps the consequences of his or her own karma, no Buddha, no Buddhists, and no Buddhism. Obviously, those are not acceptable consequences for a Buddhist.</blockquote>Lusthaus notes that for the VÃÂtsëputrëyas, their theory is simply an attempt to explain what other Buddhist traditions leave unsaid and assumed, mainly what it is that undergoes rebirth, has moral responsibility and attains enlightenment. According to Lusthaus, for the VÃÂtsëputrëyas, "while other Buddhists might leave the word "pudgala" unsaid, the narratives presupposed in their doctrines require it."
According to Thiá»Ân Châu, the VÃÂtsëputrëyas were the initial parent school out of which branched off four sub-schools (sometime between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE); mainly the Saá¹Âmitëyas, Dhammuttariyas, Bhadrayanikas, and the Sandagarikas. The VÃÂtsëputrëya communities were established in Kosambi and Sarnath, living side by side with the Saá¹Âmitëyas, a school which quickly eclipsed them in popularity.
The most prominent of the PudgalavÃÂdin schools were certainly the Saá¹Âmitëyas (Sanskrit; ) who were especially prominent in Sindh and in Gujarat during the Maitraka dynasty (470âÂÂ788 CE). Inscriptions have also established the existence of Saá¹Âmitëya communities in Mathura and Sarnath between the 2nd and 4th centuries. The Tibetan historian Buton Rinchen Drub noted that the Saá¹Âmitëya used Apabhraá¹Âà Âa as their main language. By the 4th century, this school had become so influential that they replaced the SarvastivÃÂdins in Sarnath as the most prominent school. By the time of King Harsha in the seventh century, they were the largest NikÃÂya Buddhist school in India. Due to their geographic spread, this led to them being divided into two further sub-schools, the Avantakas centered in Avanti and the Kurukulas centered around Kuru on the upper Ganges.
Their most influential center of learning was at Valabhi University in Gujarat, which remained an important place for the study of NikÃÂya Buddhism until the 8th century. Yijing, who visited Gujarat in 670 CE, noted that the Sammitiyas had the greatest number of followers in Western India and that the learning center at Valabhi rivaled that of Nalanda.
ÃÂtienne Lamotte, using the writings of the Chinese traveler Xuanzang, asserted that the Saá¹Âmitëya were in all likelihood the most populous non-MahÃÂyÃÂna sect in India, comprising double the number of the next largest sect, although scholar L. S. Cousins revised his estimate down to a quarter of all non-MahÃÂyÃÂna monks, still the largest overall. The Saá¹Âmitëya sect seems to have been particularly strong in the Sindh, where one scholar estimates 350 Buddhist monasteries were Saá¹Âmitëya of a total of 450. This area was rapidly Islamised in the wake of the Arab conquest. They continued to be a presence in India until the end of Indian Buddhism, but, never having gained a foothold elsewhere, did not continue thereafter.
Ancient sources such as Xuanzang and Tibetan historian TÃÂranÃÂtha reported that the Saá¹Âmitëyas were staunch opponents of MahÃÂyÃÂna. According to TÃÂranÃÂtha, Saá¹Âmitëya monks from the Sindh burned tantric scriptures and destroyed a silver image of Hevajra at VajrÃÂsana monastery in Bodh Gaya. In the biography of Xuanzang, it is recounted that an elderly Brahmin and follower of the Saá¹Âmitëya sect named PrajñÃÂgupta composed a treatise in 700 verses which opposed the MahÃÂyÃÂna teachings. In response, while living at NÃÂlandÃÂ, Xuanzang wrote a Sanskrit work in 1600 verses to refute this text, called The Destruction of Heresy.