Prajnaptisastra (,

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Brahmic family, Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that ...

: Prajñāptiśāstra) or Prajnapti-sastra is one of the seven Sarvastivada Abhidharma

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

scriptures. The word ''Prajnaptisastra'' means "designation" (of

dharma Dharma (; , ) is a key concept in various Indian religions. The term ''dharma'' does not have a single, clear Untranslatability, translation and conveys a multifaceted idea. Etymologically, it comes from the Sanskrit ''dhr-'', meaning ''to hold ...

s). It was composed by Maudgalyayana (according to the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dial ...

and MPPU) or Mahakatyayana. The

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

translation is by : T26, No. 1538, 施設論, 西天譯經三藏朝散大夫, 試光祿卿傳梵大師賜紫, 沙門臣法護等奉　詔譯, in a somewhat shorter 7 fascicles. The importance of this text is shown in its being quoted 135 times by the MVS ,Bhikkhu Kuala Lumpur Dhammajoti: Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma, Center for Buddhist Studies, Śrī Lanka, 2002. pg. 59. though these references are not exclusively

Sarvastivada The ''Sarvāstivāda'' (; ;) was one of the early Buddhist schools established around the reign of Ashoka (third century BCE).Westerhoff, The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy in the First Millennium CE, 2018, p. 60. It was particular ...

in nature. The format is of matrka, followed by question and answer explanations, with references to the

sutra ''Sutra'' ()Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an aphorism or a collection of aphorisms in the form of a manual or, more broadly, a ...

s for orthodoxy.

Yin Shun Yin Shun (印順, ''Yìnshùn''; 5 April 1906 – 4 June 2005) was a Chinese Buddhist monk and scholar in the tradition of Chinese Mahayana Buddhism. Though he was particularly trained in the Three Treatise school, he was an advocate of the O ...

relates the name prajnapti through the Chinese 施設 and 假 to the ''

Śāriputrābhidharma {{Short description, Buddhist Abhidharma text The ''Śāriputrābhidharma-śāstra'' (Ch. ''Shèlìfú Āpítán Lùn'', 舍利弗阿毘曇論, Taisho: 28, No. 1548, pp. 525c-719a) is a Buddhist Abhidharma text of the Sthāvirāḥ Dharmaguptaka ...

'' in regards the "false designation" of the bonds (), contact (sparsa) and mind (citta), thus indicating that it is a very early text. Willemen, Dessein & Cox assign this text to the next period,Willemen, Dessein & Cox: Sarvāstivāda Buddhist Scholasticism, Brill, 1998. pg. 18 & 70. based on its "abstract principles of organization" and "complexity of doctrinal analysis". However, though the content is different from the Samgiti and Dharma-skandha, one could scarcely consider it more abstract in nature. It simply reflects the nature of the sūtras upon which it is based. In fact, it has relatively more direct references to the sūtras for its overall size than many of the developed texts, and a similar use of questions and answers as the Samgita.

References

{{Buddhism topics Abhidharma