Шанкара знал только Сарвастиваду, Саутрантику, Мадхьямику (Шуньяавада) и Йогачару (Виджнянавада)

According to some accounts, the Sarvāstivādins emerged from the Sthavira nikāya, a small group of conservatives, who split from the reformist majority Mahāsāṃghikas at the Second Buddhist council. According to this account, they were expelled from Magadha, and moved to northwestern India where they developed into the Sarvāstivādin school.[3]

A number of scholars have identified three distinct major phases of missionary activity seen in the history of Buddhism in Central Asia, which are associated with respectively the Dharmaguptaka, Sarvāstivāda, and the Mūlasarvāstivāda,[4] and the origins of the Sarvastivada have also been related to Asoka sending Majjhantika on a mission to Gandhara, which had an early presence of the Sarvastivada.[3] The Sarvāstivādins in turn are believed to have given rise to the Mūlasarvāstivāda sect, although the relationship between these two groups has not yet been fully determined. According to Prebish, "this episode corresponds well with one Sarvāstivādin tradition stating that Madhyantika (the Sanskrit counterpart of the Pali Majjhantika) converted the city of Kasmir, which seems to have close ties with Gandhara."[3]

In A.D. 410-411, Faxian, a Chinese monk, who had left China in 399 to seek for Vinaya texts, and who had made long travels by land, stayed in Lanka for the two years. Then he returned by sea with Buddhist texts on board a ship, and back home wrote down a detailed record of the travels for himself (Taisho Tripitaka vol. 51, no. 2085). According to this record, in Anuradhapura five thousand monks were abiding in the Abhayagiri-vihara, and for ninety days annually the Buddha's teeth were carried from the Buddhadanta- vihara to the Abhayagiri-vihara to receive people's offerings. In the Mahavihara three thousand monks were abiding. The present English translator surmises that the Lankavatara sutram was compiled at the Abhayagiri-vihara some time between A.D. 411, when Faxian left Lanka for home, and 435, when Gunabhadra reached China, possibly bringing its Sanskrit text from Lanka.