Early Buddhist schools

Some of the main sects included the Sarvāstivādins ("Temporal Eternalists"), the Dharmaguptakas ("Preservers of Dharma"), Lokottaravadins ("Transcendentalists"), the Prajñaptivādins ("Conceptualists"), the Vibhajyavādins ("the Analysts"), and the Pudgalavādins ("Personalists").

According to Theravāda tradition, the teachings were divided into various parts and each was assigned to an elder and his pupils to commit to memory, and there was no conflict about what the Buddha taught.

[3][4][5] The expansion of orally transmitted texts in early Buddhism, and the growing distances between Buddhist communities, fostered specialization and sectarian identification.

[1] One or several disputes did occur during Aśoka's reign, involving both doctrinal and disciplinary (vinaya) matters, although these may have been too informal to be called a "council".

The Sthavira school had, by the time of Aśoka, divided into three sub-schools, doctrinally speaking, but these did not become separate monastic orders until later.

According to the Theravada tradition the overall result was the first schism in the sangha, between the Sthavira nikāya and the Mahāsāṃghika, although it is not agreed upon by all what the cause of this split was.

[10] Pre-sectarian Buddhism, however, did not have Abhidhammic scriptures, except perhaps for a basic framework, and not all of the early schools developed an Abhidhamma literature.

The council sided with Moggaliputta and his version of Buddhism as orthodox; it was then adopted by Emperor Aśoka as his empire's official religion.

The version of the scriptures that had been established at the third council, including the Vinaya, Sutta and the Abhidhamma Pitakas (collectively known as the "Tripiṭaka"), was taken to Sri Lanka by Emperor Aśoka's son, the Venerable Mahinda.

Around the time of Aśoka that further divisions began to occur within the Buddhist movement and a number of additional schools emerged.

Etienne Lamotte divided the mainstream Buddhist schools into three main doctrinal types:[13] One of them was faction of the Sthavira group which called themselves Vibhajjavādins.

One part of this group was transmitted to Sri Lanka and to certain areas of southern India, such as Vanavasi in the south-west and the Kañci region in the south-east.

This group later ceased to refer to themselves specifically as "Vibhajjavādins", but reverted to calling themselves "Theriyas", after the earlier Theras (Sthaviras).

The schools sometimes split over ideological differences concerning the "real" meaning of teachings in the Sutta Piṭaka, and sometimes over disagreement concerning the proper observance of vinaya.

During the first millennium, monks from China such as Faxian, Xuanzang, and Yijing made pilgrimages to India and wrote accounts of their travels when they returned home.

These Chinese travel records constitute extremely valuable sources of information concerning the state of Buddhism in India during the early medieval period.

By the time the Chinese pilgrims Xuanzang and Yijing visited India, there were five early Buddhist schools that they mentioned far more frequently than others.

They commented that the Sarvāstivāda/Mūlasarvāstivāda, Mahāsāṃghika, and Saṃmitīya were the principal early Buddhist schools still extant in India, along with the Sthavira sect.

Warder identified the following eighteen early Buddhist schools (in approximate chronological order): Sthaviravada, Mahasamghika, Vatsiputriya, Ekavyavaharika, Gokulika (a.k.a.

Warder says that these were the early Buddhist schools as of circa 50 BCE, about the same time that the Pali Canon was first committed to writing and the presumptive origin date of the Theravada sect, though the term 'Theravada' was not used before the fourth century CE.

[note 4] A hypothetical combined list would be as follows: The classic sets of ten, six or four paramitas (perfections) were codified and developed by these various schools in later sources.

[21] Although the literature of the various Abhidharma Pitakas began as a kind of commentarial supplement upon the earlier teachings in the Suttapitaka, it soon led to new doctrinal and textual developments and became the focus of a new form of scholarly monastic life.

[note 10] Traditionally, it is believed (in Theravadin culture) that the Abhidhamma was taught by Buddha to his late mother who was living in Tavatimsa heaven.

The texts Sutta Nipata, Itivuttaka, Dhammapada, Therigatha (Theragatha), Udana, and Jataka tales belong to the early stratum.

[26][27][note 15] Although the various early schools of Buddhism are sometimes loosely classified as "Hīnayāna" in modern times, this is not necessarily accurate.

[34] Timeline: Development and propagation of Buddhist traditions (c. 450 BCE – c. 1300 CE) IndiaEarlySangha        Sri Lanka &Southeast Asia        Tibetan Buddhism Nyingma East AsiaEarly Buddhist schoolsand Mahāyāna(via the silk roadto China, and oceancontact from India to Vietnam)TangmiNara (Rokushū)Shingon   NichirenJōdo-shū Central Asia & Tarim Basin Greco-Buddhism Silk Road Buddhism