ABSTRACT
In part II we have considered the Sthaviras who about 140 years after the Buddha’s Nirvana separated from the Mahāsanghikas, who in their turn provided about the beginning of the Christian era the starting-point for the Mahāyāna. The Mahāsanghikas, ‘those who represent the great assembly’, 135 got their name either from their being the majority at the Council of Pataliputra, or perhaps more probably, as those who represented the viewpoint of the laymen against the monkish party. They were divided into the following sub-sects: https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315888323/53e4cefd-605b-4e5c-a0f2-531ed38cd40e/content/fig195_img01_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
