Buddhist Sects in India

This book offers a detailed historical and doctrinal study of the rise and development of Buddhist sects in India, beginning with the political and religious background after the Buddha’s passing and tracing the gradual formation of distinct schools within the Buddhist Saṅgha. Nalinaksha Dutt examines the conditions that led to the Second Buddhist Council, especially the disputes over Vinaya discipline, the ten controversial practices of the Vajjian monks, and the deeper doctrinal disagreements concerning the nature of Arhatship and religious authority. Drawing on Pāli, Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese sources, the work compares the accounts of Vasumitra, Bhavya, Vinitadeva, the Kathāvatthu, Vinaya traditions, and later commentarial materials in order to classify the early Buddhist schools and clarify their distinctive teachings. Particular attention is given to the Mahāsāṅghikas, Sarvāstivādins, Vātsīputrīyas, Sammitīyas, Sautrāntikas, and related groups, with discussion of their views on the Buddha, Bodhisattva ideal, Abhidharma analysis, ontology, liberation, and the continuity of personal existence. The book also shows how sectarian debates were not merely institutional divisions but important intellectual developments that helped shape later Buddhist thought, including the emergence of Mahāyāna as a natural expansion of ideas already present in some early schools and as a reaction to other doctrinal systems. With its historical scope, textual comparison, and doctrinal analysis, Buddhist Sects in India remains a valuable scholarly resource for understanding the diversity, transformation, and philosophical depth of Indian Buddhism.