The concept of the dharmakaya, derived from the Buddha’s teachings collected in the corpus of early Buddhist literature, was further developed as a collection of pure dharmas by the Sarvastivadins. It finally evolved into the cosmic body, an impersonal principle supporting all phenomena through its identification with the tathata which pervades the whole universe in Mahāyāna Buddhism.

Many scholars think that the development of the concept of the Buddha is mainly driven by faith in Gautama, but our study of the subject shows that philosophical thought also plays a very important role.