Mahāsāṃghika
The Mahāsāṃghika (Brahmi: 𑀫𑀳𑀸𑀲𑀸𑀁𑀖𑀺𑀓, "of the Great Sangha", Chinese: 大眾部; pinyin: Dà zhòng bù; Vietnamese: Đại chúng bộ) was a major division (nikāya) of the early Buddhist schools in India.
They blame a figure named Mahadeva with arguing for five divisive points, four of which see arhatship as a lesser kind of spiritual attainment (which still has ignorance and desire).
[7] The ancient Buddhist sites in the lower Krishna Valley, including Amarāvati, Nāgārjunakoṇḍā and Jaggayyapeṭa, "can be traced to at least the third century BCE, if not earlier.
[10] The relevant portion of the Śāriputraparipṛcchā reads:[11] The Mahāsāṃghika school diligently study the collected sūtras and teach the true meaning, because they are the source and the center.
[13] The Tibetan historian Buton Rinchen Drub (1290–1364) wrote that the Mahāsāṃghikas used Prākrit, the Sarvāstivādins Sanskrit, the Sthaviravādins used Paiśācī and the Saṃmitīya used Apabhraṃśa.
[20] Xing also notes that the Acchariyābbhūtasutta of the Majjhimanikāya along with its Chinese Madhyamāgama parallel version is the most prominent evidence for the ancient source of the Mahāsāṃghika view of the Buddha.
[21] Of the 48 special theses attributed by the Samayabhedoparacanacakra to the Mahāsāṃghikas (Ekavyāvahārika, Lokottaravāda, and Kukkuṭika), twenty concern the supramundane nature of buddhas and bodhisattvas.
[31] K. Venkata Ramanan writes:[32] The credit of having kept alive the emphasis on the ultimacy of the unconditioned reality by drawing attention to the non-substantiality of the basic elements of existence (dharma-śūnyatā) belongs to the Mahāsāṃghikas.
The Mahāvibhāṣa Śāstra explains the doctrine of self-reflexive awareness as follows: Some allege that the mind (citta) and mental activities (caitta) can apprehend themselves (svabhāva).
[39] Zhan Ru also notes that the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya (Chinese: Mohe Sengqi Lü) translated by Faxian (337–422 CE) contains proto-Mahayana elements and "reflects the nascent formation of the Mahāyāna Dharma teachings.
[41] It is considered a primary source for the notion of a transcendent (''lokottara'') Buddha, who across his countless past lives developed various abilities such as omniscience (sarvajñana), the lack of any need for sleep or food and being born painlessly without the need for intercourse.
The Śariputraparipṛcchā (Shelifu Wen Jing, 舍利弗問經, Taisho 1465, p. 900b), translated into Chinese between 317 and 420, is a Mahasamghika Vinaya work which also provides a history of early Buddhism and its schisms.
[43] Some scholars such as Yao and Tse Fu Kuan consider the Ekottara Āgama (Taishō Tripiṭaka 125) to belong to the Mahāsāṃghika school, though this is still up for debate.
[39][44] The Lokānuvartanā sūtra (Chinese: 佛説内藏百寶經, pinyin: fóshuō nèi zàng bǎi bǎo jīng, Taishō Tripiṭaka, Volume 17, text No.
[47][48] On the basis of textual evidence as well as inscriptions at Nāgārjunakoṇḍā, Joseph Walser concludes that at least some Mahāsāṃghika sects probably had an abhidharma collection, and that it likely contained five or six books.
[53] In the 6th century CE, Paramārtha, a Buddhist monk from Ujjain in central India, wrote about a special affiliation of the Mahāsāṃghika school with the Mahāyāna tradition.
[54] He states that 200 years after the parinirvāṇa of the Buddha, much of the Mahāsāṃghika school moved north of Rājagṛha, and were divided over whether the Mahāyāna teachings should be incorporated formally into their Tripiṭaka.
The Mahāyāna Mahāmegha Sūtra, for example, gives a prophecy about a royal princess of the Śatavāhana dynasty who will live in Āndhra, along the Kṛṣṇa River, in Dhānyakaṭaka, seven hundred years after the parinirvāṇa of the Buddha.
[29] Guang Xing states, "several scholars have suggested that the Prajñāpāramitā probably developed among the Mahāsāṃghikas in southern India, in the Āndhra country, on the Kṛṣṇa River.
[29] Brian Edward Brown, a specialist in Tathāgatagarbha doctrines, writes that it has been determined that the composition of the Śrīmālādevī Siṃhanāda Sūtra occurred during the Īkṣvāku Dynasty in the 3rd century as a product of the Mahāsāṃghikas of the Āndhra region (i.e. the Caitika schools).
The Aṅgulimālīya Sūtra gives a more detailed account by mentioning the points of distribution as including South India, the Vindhya Range, Bharuch, and Kashmir.
The Śātavāhana rulers gave rich patronage to Buddhism, and were involved with the development of the cave temples at Karla and Ajaṇṭā, and also with the Great Stūpa at Amarāvati.
Hodge summarizes his findings as follows:[65] [T]here are strong grounds based on textual evidence that the MPNS (Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra), or a major portion of it, together with related texts were compiled in the Deccan during the second half of the 2nd century CE, in a Mahāsāṃghika environment, probably in one of their centres along the western coastal region such as Karli, or perhaps, though less likely, the Amaravatī-Dhanyakaṭaka region.In the 6th century CE, Paramārtha wrote that the Mahāsāṃghikas revere the sūtras which teach the Tathāgatagarbha.
"[70] André Bareau has stated that there can be found Mahāyāna ontology prefigured in the Mahāsāṃghika schools, and has offered an array of evidence to support this conclusion.
[71] André Bareau also mentions that according to Xuanzang and Yijing in the 7th century CE, the Mahāsāṃghika schools had essentially disappeared, and instead these travelers found what they described as "Mahāyāna."
[71] Additionally, the extant Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya was originally procured by Faxian in the early 5th century CE at what he describes as a "Mahāyāna" monastery in Pāṭaliputra.
Scholars such as Master Yin Shun, Choong Moon Keat, and Bhikkhu Sujato have argued that the Samyutta / Samyukta represents the earliest collection among the Nikayas / Agamas, and this may well imply that it is also the oldest organising principle too.
In the formulations of some of the pratimoksha rules also, the phrasing (though generally identical in meaning to the other recensions) often appears to represent a clearer but less streamlined version, which suggests it might be older.
According to this study, the earliest vinaya material common to all sects simply depicts Devadatta as a Buddhist saint who wishes for the monks to live a rigorous lifestyle.
In the early 8th century, Dao'an gained the support of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, and an imperial edict was issued that the saṃgha in China should use only the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya for ordination.
