About Early Buddhist schools

The early Buddhist schools are those schools into which the Buddhist monastic saṅgha initially split, due originally to differences in vinaya and later also due to doctrinal differences and geographical separation of groups of monks.

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Pre-modern copies of the Tipiṭaka were preserved in Palm-leaf manuscripts

Nikaya Buddhism – The early Buddhist schools

The term Nikāya Buddhism was coined by Masatoshi Nagatomi as a non-derogatory substitute for Hinayana, meaning the . Examples of these groups are pre-sectarian Buddhism and the early Buddhist schools. Early Buddhism in India is generally divided into various monastic fraternities, or nikāyas. Conventionally numbering eighteen, the actual count varied over time. The doctrinal orientation of each school differed somewhat, as did the number of piṭakas in their canon. An example of .