Eighteen Hinayana schools
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eighteen Hinayana schools; 十八部・小乗十八部 ( Jpn juhachi-bu or shojo-juhachi-bu )
Also, eighteen schools. Hinayana schools formed by schisms in the Buddhist Order after Shakyamuni's death. According to The Doctrines of the Different Schools, a text of the Sarvastivada school, one hundred years after Shakyamuni's death, the first schism occurred in the Buddhist Order and gave rise to the Sthaviravada (Pali Theravada) and Mahasamghika schools. During the following hundred years, eight schools derived from the Mahasamghika school.
They were the
Ekavyavaharika,
Lokottaravada,
Kaukkutika,
Bahushrutiya,
Prajnaptivadin (also, Prajnaptivadin),
Chaityavadin,
Aparashaila, and
Uttarashaila schools.
The Sarvastivada school broke away from the Sthaviravada school about two hundred years after Shakyamuni's death and later gave rise to nine offshoots, totaling ten schools. The nine offshoots were the
Vatsiputriya,
Mahishasaka,
Kashyapiya,
Sautrantika,
Dharmottara,
Bhadrayaniya,
Sammatiya,
Shannagarika, and
Dharmagupta schools.
The eight schools that derived from the Mahasamghika school, plus the ten schools that derived from the Sthaviravada, or the Sarvastivada and its nine offshoots, together constitute the eighteen schools. If the original two schools, Sthaviravada and Mahasamghika, are added to the eighteen schools, then they form twenty Hinayana schools. The successive schisms that gave rise to these schools are said to have ceased by the beginning of the first century B.C.E.