The Vaibha@sikas are identified with the Sarvastivadins who according to Dipava@msa V. 47, as pointed out by Takakusu, branched off from the Mahis’asakas, who in their turn had separated from the Theravada school.

From the Kathavatthu we know (1) that the Sabbatthivadins believed that everything existed, (2) that the dawn of right attainment was not a momentary flash of insight but by a gradual process, (3) that consciousness or even samadhi was nothing but

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[Footnote 1:  This account is based on the translation of A@s@tamakos’asthananibaddha@h pudgolavinis’caya@h, a special appendix to the eighth chapter of Abhidharmakos’a, by Prof Th.  Stcherbatsky, Bulletin de l’ Academie des Sciences de Russie, 1919.]

[Footnote 2:  Professor De la Vallee Poussin has collected some of the points of this doctrine in an article on the Sammitiyas in the E.  R.E. He there says that in the Abhidharmakos’avyakhya the Sammitiyas have been identified with the Vatsiputtriyas and that many of its texts were admitted by the Vaibha@sikas of a later age.  Some of their views are as follows:  (1) An arhat in possession of nirvana can fall away; (2) there is an intermediate state between death and rebirth called antarabhava; (3) merit accrues not only by gift (tyaganvaya) but also by the fact of the actual use and advantage reaped by the man to whom the thing was given (paribhoganvaya pu@nya); (4) not only abstention from evil deeds but a declaration of intention to that end produces merit by itself alone; (5) they believe in a pudgala (soul) as distinct from the skandhas from which it can be said to be either different or non-different.  “The pudgala cannot be said to be transitory (anitye) like the skandhas since it transmigrates laying down the burden (skandhas) shouldering a new burden; it cannot be said to be permanent, since it is made of transitory constituents.”  This pudgala doctrine of the Sammitiyas as sketched by Professor De la Vallee Poussin is not in full agreement with the pudgala doctrine of the Sammitiyas as sketched by Gu@naratna which we have noticed above.]

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a flux and (4) that an arhat (saint) may fall away [Footnote ref 1].  The Sabbatthivadins or Sarvastivadins have a vast Abhidharma literature still existing in Chinese translations which is different from the Abhidharma of the Theravada school which we have already mentioned [Footnote ref 2].  These are 1. Jnanaprasthana S’astra of Katyayaniputtra which passed by the name of Maha Vibha@sa from which the Sabbatthivadins who followed it are called Vaibha@sikas [Footnote ref 3].  This work is said to have been given a literary form by As’vagho@sa. 2. Dharmaskandha by S’ariputtra. 3. Dhatukaya by Pur@na. 4. Prajnaptis’astra by Maudgalyayana. 5. Vijnanakaya by Devak@sema. 6. Sa@ngitiparyyaya