Pudgalavada

The Pudgalavāda (Sanskrit; Chinese: 補特伽羅論者; pinyin: Bǔtèjiāluō Lùnzhě) or "Personalist" school of Buddhism, was a grouping of early Buddhist schools that separated from the Sthavira nikāya around 280 BCE. Prominent groups classified as Pudgalavāda include the Vātsīputrīya nikāya and the Saṃmitīya nikāya.

The Pudgalavādins asserted that while there is no ātman, there is a pudgala or "person", which is neither the same as nor different from the skandhas. The "person" was their method of accounting for karma, rebirth, and nirvana. Other schools held that the "person" exists only as a label, a nominal reality.

Pudgalavādin views were sharply criticized by the Theravada (a record of a Theravadin attack on the pudgala is found in the Kathavatthu), Sarvastivada, and the Madhyamaka. Peter Harvey agrees with criticisms leveled against the Pudgalavadins by Moggaliputta-Tissa and Vasubandhu, and finds that there is no support in the Pali nikayas for their "person"-concept.

Among the most prominent of the Pudgalavādin schools were the Saṃmitīya. Étienne Lamotte, using the writings of the Chinese traveler Xuanzang, asserted that the Saṃmitīya were in all likelihood the most populous non-Mahayanist 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-Mahayana monks, still the largest overall. 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.

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