Mahasanghika

Maha-sanghika is the name of one of the two great divisions of the Buddhistic Church which arose about two hundred years after the death of the Buddha Sakyamuni, or about 343. SEE STHAVIRA. Out of this school arose, in the course of the next centuries, numerous sects. For the tenets common to all, and for those peculiar to each of these sects, the special student of the Buddhist religion will at present most advantageously consult the work of Prof. W. Wassiljew, Der Buddhismus, seine Dogmen, Geschichte und Literatur (St. Petersburg, 1860).