MAH?S??GHIKA SCHOOL

The Mah?s??ghika (or Mah?s??ghika) school is believed to have emerged from the first major schism in the Buddhist order, at a council held in the fourth century b.c.e., more than a century after Gautama's death. The name, from mah?sa?gha, "great (er) community," supposedly reflects the Mah?s??ghikas' superior numbers, the Sthaviras being the minority party to the dispute. The split may have been caused by disagreements over the vinaya, or the famous five theses of Mah?deva concerning the arhat, or the introduction of Mah?y?na s?tras into the canon. Traditional accounts of these issues are obscure and conflicting. What is certain is that the Mah?s??ghikas and their many subschools (Lokottarav?dins, Prajñaptiv?dins, P?rva?ailas, Apara?ailas, etc.) followed a conservative form of the vinaya, yet were responsible for many doctrinal innovations, chief of which is the theory known as lokottarav?da. This holds that the Buddha transcends all human limitations, and is thus above (uttara) the world (loka), his life as Gautama being a compassionate display.

Some Mah?s??ghika ideas later flowed into Mah?y?na Buddhism, which is, however, now thought to have drawn its inspiration from many schools. Once well represented throughout the subcontinent, especially in the northwest (including present-day Afghanistan) and the south, the Mah?s??ghikas eventually disappeared as a living ordination tradition. Now only parts of their canon survive, including the distinctively structured vinaya and what may be their Ekottarik?g?ma (both in Chinese translation). Sections of the Mah?s??ghika-Lokottarav?din Vinaya also survive in Sanskrit (notably the Mah?vastu), as do fragments of the literature of other subschools.

See also:Mainstream Buddhist Schools

Bibliography

Bareau, André. Les sectes bouddhiques du petit véhicule. Saigon, Vietnam: École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1955.

Lamotte, Étienne. History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Saka Era, tr. Sara Webb-Boin. Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: Université catholique de Louvain, Institut Orientaliste, 1988.

Nattier, Janice J., and Prebish, Charles S. "Mah?s??ghika Origins: The Beginnings of Buddhist Sectarianism." History of Religions 16 (1977): 237–272.

Paul Harrison