Hinayana
The Hinayana (Sanskrit lit. Lesser Vehicle) term used to identify ancient Indian schools of Buddhism that are now mostly extinct. None of the schools originally designated as 'Hinayana' survive today, but the Theravada School of Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand is descended from the Sthaviravādin School (see below).
Hinayana is now widely thought of as pejorative - the word hina means "inferior, low; poor, miserable; vile, base, abject, contemptible, despicable" (Pali Text Society Dictionary). The term was coined by the Mahayana schools as a way to differentiate themselves from the early schools. Mahayana texts frequently contain polemics against formalism and disputed doctrines which are directed at monks from the schools which subsequently became known as hinayana.
However the term is still in current use to describe the early Buddhist schools, especially in Tibetan Buddhist circles because they inherited texts and teachings from all of the 'yanas' and simply adopted the terminolgy of the Mahayana Sutras. There doesn't seem to be a widely accepted, or understood, alternative. Early Buddhism is frequently used, but is not entirely accurate because some of the 'early' schools arose later than the Mahayana schools. The use of Theravada is not correct either as the Theravada are not representative of the other early schools, despite having roots that go back to that time. Shravakayana is another term that has been used and would seem to be a useful one in that it, indicates the earlyness of most of the schools (Shravaka means hearer [of the Buddha]), and it has no unfortunate connotations.
Some remnants of these schools do still exist: the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism still use a Sarvastivada vinaya, and Chinese schools use one from the Dharmagupta school. Fragments of the canon of texts from these schools also survive such as the Mahavastu of the Mahasanghika School. Other texts survive only in Tibetan and/or Chinese translation. Only the Theravadin Pali Canon survived intact in the language in which it was originally written down.
Schools
Although some texts mention eighteen 'hīnayana' schools in India, by the time the Chinese Pilgrims Hsuan-tsang and I Ching visited India in the medieval period there where five that they mention far more frequently than others.
Around 100 years after the death of the Buddha the first division of the Sangha occured. This resulted in the Sthaviravādin and Mahāsanghika schools. Opinions differ on the cause of the split with the Theravadins recording that the other party were lax monks who had ceased to follow all the Vinaya rules. The Mahāsanghikas however point to the Sthaviravādin wishing to include more rules into the Vinaya. The Mahāsanghikas split into several sub-schools of minor importance.
The Sthaviravādin School had, by the time of King Asoka divided into three sub-schools. The Sammitīya School later became known as the Pudgalavādin but died out around the 9th or 10th century CE. The Sarvāstivādin school, was most prominant in the North West of India and provided some of the doctrines that would later be adopted by the Mahāyana. It split into two major sub-sects, the Vaibhāsika and Sautrāntika Schools. Finally there is the Vibhajyavādin school which had a particular interest in the analytical approach to the Dharma and produced a voluminous Abhidharma tradition. From the Vibhajyavādins we get the Theravādin School which was founded in Sri Lanka, and the Mahīshāsika School in South East India.
See also: Theravada and Mahayana
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Referenced By
Indian Buddhism | Southeast Asian Buddhism | Tantrayana | Theravada | Theravada Buddhism | Theravadan | Theravadin | Therevadin
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