Early Buddhist schools

According to the scriptures (Cullavagga XI.1 ff), three months after the passing of Gautama Buddha, the first council was held at Rajagaha by some of his disciples who had attained arahantship. At this point, Theravāda tradition maintains that no conflict about what the Buddha taught occurred; the teachings were divided into various parts and each was assigned to an elder and his pupils to commit to memory.

The accounts of the council in the scriptures of the schools differ as to what was actually recited there. Purāṇa is recorded as having said: "Your reverences, well chanted by the elders are the Dhamma and Vinaya, but in that way that I heard it in the Lord's presence, that I received it in his presence, in that same way will I bear it in mind." [Vinaya-pitaka: Cullavagga XI:1:11].

Some scholars deny that the first council actually took place.[3][4]

The Second Buddhist council took place approximately one hundred years after Gautama Buddha's parinirvāṇa. Virtually all scholars agree that the second council was a historical event.[5] Traditions regarding the Second Council are confusing and ambiguous, but it is agreed that the overall result was the first schism in the sangha, between the Sthavira nikāya and the Mahāsāṃghikas, although it is not agreed upon by all what the cause of this split was.[6]

The textual sources agree that the first split was between the Sthaviravāda and the Mahāsāṃghika. However, after this initial division, more were to follow. Some modern scholars argue that the first split occurred in the intervening period between the second and third councils, and was probably about monastic discipline. However, only two ancient sources (the Dīpavaṃsa and Bhavya's third list) place the first schism before Aśoka, and none attribute the schism to a dispute on Vinaya practice.

Tradition largely holds that Buddhism split into 18 schools, but different sources give different lists of them, and scholars conclude that the number is merely conventional.

Theravādin sources state that, in the 3rd century BCE, a third council was convened under the patronage of Aśoka.[7] Some scholars argue that there are certain implausible features of the Theravādin account which imply that the third council was ahistorical. The remainder consider it a purely Theravāda-Vibhajjavāda council. It is generally accepted, however, that 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 Theravādin account, this council was convened primarily for the purpose of establishing an official orthodoxy. At the council, small groups raised questions about the specifics of the vinaya and the interpretation of doctrine. The chairman of the council, Moggaliputta Tissa, compiled a book, the Kathavatthu, which was meant to refute these arguments. 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. In Pali, this school of thought was termed Vibhajjavāda, literally "thesis of [those who make] a distinction".

The distinction involved was as to the existence of phenomena (dhammas) in the past, future and present. 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. There it was eventually committed to writing in the Pali language. The Pāli Canon remains the most complete set of surviving Nikāya scriptures, although the greater part of the Sarvāstivādin canon also survives in Chinese translation, some parts exist in Tibetan translations, and some fragments exist in Sanskrit manuscripts, while parts of various canons (sometimes unidentified), exist in Chinese and fragments in other Indian dialects.

Whatever might be the truth behind the Theravādin account, it was around the time of Aśoka that further divisions began to occur within the Buddhist movement and a number of additional schools emerged, including the Sarvāstivāda and the Saṃmitīya. All of these early schools of Nikāya Buddhism eventually came to be known collectively as "the eighteen schools" in later sources. With the exception of the Theravāda, none of these early schools survived beyond the late medieval period by which time several were already long extinct, although a considerable amount of the canonical literature of some of these schools has survived, mainly in Chinese translation. Moreover, the origins of specifically Mahāyāna doctrines may be discerned in the teachings of some of these early schools, in particular in the Mahāsānghika and the Sarvāstivāda.

During and after the third council, elements of the Sthavira group 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). Still later, at some point prior to the Dipavamsa (4th century), the Pali name Theravāda was adopted and has remained in use ever since for this group.

The Pudgalavādins were also known as Vatsiputrīyas after their putative founder. Later this group became known as the Sammitīya school after one of its subdivisions. It died out around the 9th or 10th century CE. Nevertheless, during most of the early medieval period, the Sammitīya school was numerically the largest Buddhist group in India, with more followers than all the other schools combined. The Sarvāstivādin school was most prominent in the north-west of India and provided some of the doctrines that would later be adopted by the Mahāyāna. Another group linked to Sarvāstivāda was the Sautrāntika school, which only recognized the authority of the sutras and rejected the abhidharma transmitted and taught by the Vaibhāṣika wing of Sarvāstivāda. Based on textual considerations, it has been suggested that the Sautrāntikas were actually adherents of Mūlasarvāstivāda. The relation between Sarvāstivāda and the Mūlasarvāstivāda, however, is unclear.

Etienne Lamotte divided the mainstream Buddhist schools into three main doctrinal types:[8]

1. The “personalists”, such as the Pudgalavādin Vātsīputrīyas and Saṃmittīyas
2. The “realists”, namely the Theravāda and Sarvāstivāda Ābhidharmikas
3. The “nominalists”, for instance, the Mahāsāṃghika Prajñaptivādins, and possibly non-Abhidharma Sthaviravadins.

Between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE, the terms "Mahāyāna" and "Hīnayāna" were first used in writing, in, for example, the Lotus Sutra.

Although the various early schools of Buddhism are sometimes loosely classified as "Hīnayāna" in modern times, this is not necessarily accurate. According to Jan Nattier, Mahāyāna never referred to a separate sect of Buddhism (Skt. nikāya), but rather to the set of ideals and doctrines for bodhisattvas.[9] Paul Williams has also noted that the Mahāyāna never had nor ever attempted to have a separate vinaya or ordination lineage from the early Buddhist schools, and therefore each bhikṣu or bhikṣuṇī adhering to the Mahāyāna formally belonged to an early school.

Membership in these nikāyas, or monastic sects, continues today with the Dharmaguptaka nikāya in East Asia, and the Mūlasarvāstivāda nikāya in Tibetan Buddhism. Therefore, Mahāyāna was never a separate rival sect of the early schools.[10] Paul Harrison clarifies that while Mahāyāna monastics belonged to a nikāya, not all members of a nikāya were Mahāyānists.[11] From Chinese monks visiting India, we now know that both Mahāyāna and non-Mahāyāna monks in India often lived in the same monasteries side by side.[12] Additionally, Isabella Onians notes that Mahāyāna works rarely used the term Hīnayāna, typically using the term Śrāvakayāna instead.[13]

The Chinese Buddhist monk and pilgrim Yijing wrote about relationship between the various "vehicles" and the early Buddhist schools in India. He wrote, "There exist in the West numerous subdivisions of the schools which have different origins, but there are only four principal schools of continuous tradition." These schools are namely the Mahāsāṃghika nikāya, Sthavira, Mūlasarvāstivāda and Saṃmitīya nikāyas.[14] Explaining their doctrinal affiliations, he then writes, "Which of the four schools should be grouped with the Mahāyāna or with the Hīnayāna is not determined." That is to say, there was no simple correspondence between a Buddhist monastic sect, and whether its members learn "Hīnayāna" or "Mahāyāna" teachings.[15]

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.[16] The Dharmaguptakas continued to be found in Gandhāra and Central Asia, along the Silk Road.

This list was taken from the Sri Lankan chronicles, Dipavamsa (3rd–4th century CE) and Mahavamsa (5th century CE).

• Sthaviravāda/Vibhajjavāda/Theravāda
  • Mahīśāsaka – First schism
    • Sarvāstivāda – Third schism
      • Kāśyapīya – Fourth schism
        • Sankrantika – Fifth schism
          • Sautrāntika – Sixth schism
    • Dharmaguptaka – Third schism
  • Vatsīputrīya – First schism
    • Dharmottarīya – Second schism
    • Bhadrayānīya – Second schism
    • Sannāgarika – Second schism
    • Saṃmitīya – Second schism
• Mahāsāṃghika
  • Gokulika – First schism
    • Prajñaptivāda – Second schism
    • Bahuśrutīya – Second schism
  • Ekavyahārikas – First schism
  • Caitika – Third schism, according to Dipavamsa, but in the Mahavamsa it is said to have arisen from the Pannati and Bahussutaka

In addition, the Dipavamsa lists the following six schools without identifying the schools from which they arose:

• Hemavatika (Sanskrit: Haimavata)
• Rajagiriya
• Siddhatthaka
• Pubbaseliya
• Aparaseliya (Sanskrit: Aparaśaila)
• Apararajagirika

This list was taken from Samayabhedo Paracana Cakra, the author of which was Vasumitra (d. 124 BCE), a Sarvāstivādin monk.

• Sthaviravāda
  • Haimavata – First schism; referred to by Sarvāstivādins as "the original Sthavira School", but this school was only influential in the north of India.
  • Sarvāstivāda – First schism
    • Vatsīputrīya – Second schism
      • Dharmottarīya – Third schism
      • Bhadrayānīya – Third schism
      • Saṃmitīya – Third schism
      • Sannāgarika – Third schism
    • Mahīśāsaka– Fourth schism
      • Dharmaguptaka – Fifth schism
    • Kāśyapīya – Sixth schism
    • Sautrāntika – Seventh schism
• Mahāsāṃghika
  • Ekavyahārikas – First schism
  • Lokottaravāda – First schism
  • Gokulika – First schism
  • Bahuśrutīya – Second schism
  • Prajñaptivāda – Third schism
  • Caitika – Fourth schism
  • Apara Śaila – Fourth schism
  • Uttara Śaila – Fourth schism

Vinitadeva (c. 645–715) was a Mūlasarvāstivādin monk.

• Sthaviravāda
  • Jetavaniya
  • Abhayagirivasin
  • Mahaviharavasin
• Sammatiya
  • Kaurukullaka
  • Avantaka
  • Vatsīputrīya
• Sarvastivadin
  • Mūlasarvāstivādin
  • Kasyapiya
  • Mahisasaka
  • Dharmaguptaka
  • Bahuśrutīya
  • Tamrasatiya
  • Vibhajyavadin
• Mahāsāṃghika
  • Purvasaila
  • Aparasaila
  • Haimavata
  • Lottaravadin
  • Prajñaptivāda

The Śāriputraparipṛcchā is a Mahāsāṃghikan history.

• Sthaviravāda
  • Sarvāstivāda
    • Mahisasaka
    • Dharmaguptaka
    • Suvarsa
  • Vatsīputrīya
    • Dharmottarīya
    • Bhadrayaniya
    • Sammatiya
    • Sannagarika
  • Kāśyapīya
  • Sutravadin
  • Samkrantika
• Mahāsāṃghika
  • Vyavahara
  • Lokottaravāda
  • Gokulika
  • Bahuśrutīya
  • Prajñaptivāda
  • Mahadeva
  • Caitika
  • Uttarashaila

Sthaviravāda (上座部) was split into 11 sects. These were: Sarvāstivādin (説 – 切有部), Haimavata (雪山部), Vatsīputrīya (犢子部), Dharmottara (法上部), Bhadrayānīya (賢冑部), Sammitīya (正量部), Channagirika (密林山部), Mahisasaka (化地部), Dharmaguptaka (法蔵部), Kāśyapīya (飲光部), Sautrāntika (経量部).

• Sthaviravāda, later Haimavata
  • Sarvāstivādin
    • Vatsīputrīya
      • Dharmottara
      • Bhadrayānīya
      • Sammitīya
      • Channagirika(Sannāgarika)
    • Mahisasaka
      • Dharmaguptaka
    • Kāśyapīya
    • Sautrāntika

Mahāsāṃghika (大衆部) was split into 9 sects. There were: Ekavyahārika (– 説部), Lokottaravāda (説出世部), Gokulika (鶏胤部), Bahuśrutīya (多聞部), Prajñaptivāda (説仮部), Caitika (制多山部), Aparaśaila (西山住部), and Uttaraśaila (北山住部).

• Mahāsāṃghika
  • Ekavyahārika
  • Caitika
  • Lokottaravādin
  • Aparaśaila
  • Gokulika
  • Uttaraśaila
  • Bahuśrutīya
  • Prajñaptivāda

• Sthaviravāda
  • Pudgalavāda ('Personalist') (c. 280 BCE)
    • Vatsīputrīya (during Aśoka) later name: Saṃmitīya
    • Dharmottarīya
    • Bhadrayānīya
    • Sannāgarika
  • Vibhajjavāda (prior to 240 BCE; during Aśoka)
    • Theravāda (c. 240 BCE)
    • (Kāśyapīya (after 232 BCE))[note 1]
    • (Mahīśāsaka (after 232 BCE))[note 1]
      • (Dharmaguptaka (after 232 BCE))[note 1]
  • Sarvāstivāda (c. 237 BCE)
    • (Kāśyapīya (after 232 BCE))[note 1]
    • (Mahīśāsaka (after 232 BCE))[note 1]
      • (Dharmaguptaka (after 232 BCE))[note 1]
    • Sautrāntika (between 50 BCE and c. 100 CE)
    • Mūlasarvāstivāda (3rd and 4th centuries)
    • Vaibhāṣika
• Mahāsāṃghika
  • Ekavyahārikas (during Aśoka)
    • Lokottaravāda
  • Gokulika (during Aśoka)
    • Bahuśrutīya (late third century BCE)
    • Prajñaptivāda (late third century BCE)
  • Caitika (mid-first century BCE)
    • Apara Śaila
    • Uttara Śaila

Noted Canadian Buddhist scholar A.K. Warder (University of Toronto) identifies the following eighteen early Buddhist schools (in approximate chronological order): Sthaviravada, Mahasamghika, Vatsiputriya, Ekavyavaharika, Gokulika (a.k.a. Kukkutika, etc.), Sarvastivada, Lokottaravāda, Dharmottariya, Bhadrayaniya, Sammitiya, Sannagarika, Bahusrutiya, Prajnaptivada, Mahisasaka, Haimavata (a.k.a. Kasyapiya), Dharmaguptaka, Caitika, and the Apara and Uttara (Purva) Saila. 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 (see Ajahn Sucitto, "What Is Theravada" (2012); see also A.K. Warder, Indian Buddhism, 3rd rev. ed. (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2000), chapters 8 and 9).