Prajñaptivāda

The Prajñaptivāda (Sanskrit; traditional Chinese: 說假部; ; pinyin: Shuō Jiǎ Bù) was a branch of the Mahāsāṃghika, one of the early Buddhist schools in India. The Prajñaptivādins were also known as the Bahuśrutīya-Vibhajyavādins.

According to Vasumitra, the Prajñaptivāda school is said to have developed as one of several Mahāsāṃghika subschools. They are recorded as having taken up residence in the Himalayas. According to Tāranātha, the Prajñaptivādins continued to flourish in Magadha through the Pala Empire as late as the 10th century CE.A. K. Warder writes that the Prajñaptivādins were not known to have left Buddhism's original territory (modern Northeast India, Bengal and Nepal).

The Samayabhedhoparacanacakra records that the doctrines of the Prajñaptivāda school were similar to those of the main Mahāsāṃghika school.

According to André Bareau, the name Prajñaptivāda refers to their doctrine that phenomena are the product of conceptualization (Skt. prajñapti). The Prajñaptivādins distinguished between conventional truth (Skt. saṃvṛti) and ultimate truth (Skt. paramārtha), and between reality (Skt. tattva) and mere concepts (Skt. prajñapti).

Vasumitra writes that the Prajñaptivādins viewed all conditioned phenomena as being mere concepts or notions (Skt. prajñapti), and therefore they were considered to be suffering. Contrary to the Sarvāstivādins, the Prajñaptivādins did not view the skandhas or the five elements as suffering. Instead these were viewed as existing merely as nominal entities without any ultimate existence.

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