Sautrāntika

The Sautrāntika or Sutravadin (Sanskrit: सौत्रान्तिक, Suttavāda in Pali; Chinese: 經量部\ 說經部; pinyin: jīng liàng bù\ shuō jīng bù; Japanese: 経量部, romanized: Kyou Ryou Bu) were an early Buddhist school generally believed to be descended from the Sthavira nikāya by way of their immediate parent school, the Sarvāstivādins. While they are identified as a unique doctrinal tendency, they were part of the Sarvāstivāda Vinaya lineage of monastic ordination.

Their name means literally "the conclusions of the sutras" where sūtra is lengthened into the vṛddhi derivative sautra, and combined with the word anta, meaning end or conclusion, with a final nominal marker ika (compare with the term vedānta), meaning their philosophy is derived from the sūtras. As stated by the commentator Yasomitra, they hold the sutras, but not the Abhidharma commentaries (sastras), as authoritative. The views of this group first appear in the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya of Vasubandhu.