The Foundations of Buddhism

52 The Word of Buddha: Scriptures and Schools

into two: the reformist sthaviras (Pali thera) or 'elders' and the

majority mahiisiirrtghikas or 'those of the great community'.^25 The

dating of this important event in the history of Buddhism is also

extremely problematic since it hinges on the vexed question of

the date of the death of the Buddha himself. With the growing

scholarly consensus that dates the Buddha's death at the end of

the fifth century BCE or even the beginning of the fourth, it seems

that we must place the event of the first division of the Sangha

some time around the beginning of the third century BCE before

the accession of the emperor Asoka (c.268 BeE); although it is

not impossible that we should follow certain of our sources

which suggest that the division occurred actually during the reign

of Asoka.

In the century or so following this fundamental division of

the Sangha into the Sthaviras and Mahasa:q1ghikas it is clear

that further schools emerged. Yet the processes by which these

schools came into being is not so clear; whether they occurred

as the result of formal disagreements over some Vinaya issue that

resulted in deadlock and was thus the occasion for formal divi-

sion of the Sangha (i.e. smigha-bheda), or whether they merely

represent de facto divisions of the Sangha that evolved haphaz-

ardly as the Sangha spread and grew, is not certain. The names

of the schools variously suggest characteristic teachings, geo-

graphical location, or the followings of particular teachers. At

least some of the schools mentioned by later Buddhist tradition

are likely to have been informal schools of thought in the manner

of 'Cartesians', 'British Empiricists', or 'Kantians' for the history

of modern philosophy.^26

The primary sub-schools. of the Sthaviras focus on certain

technical points of Abhidharma. The Vatsiputriyas ('followers

of Vatsiputra') and their sub-schools adopted a particular posi-

tion on the ontological status of 'the person' (pudgala/puggala)

and were thus referred to as 'advocates of the doctrine [of the

existence] of the person' (pudgala-viidin).

Another group developed a particular understanding of the

way things exist in past, present, and future time; they were known
as 'advocates of the doctrine that all things [past, present, and