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Buddhist Sangha

Type Object Region South Asia Time c. -500–1

The Buddhist Sangha is the community of ordained practitioners formed after the Buddha's parinirvana, organized around vinaya discipline, rains retre…

Timeline

  1. c. -500–-400Magadha · IndiaAfter the Buddha's parinirvana, his disciples continued their practice organized as the sangha, establishing vinaya rules to regulate monastic life and forming the earliest communities of bhikkhus and bhikkhunis in the Ganges basin.
  2. c. -350–-250Vaishali · BiharDisagreements over the interpretation of the vinaya gradually divided the sangha; councils were held to compile the canon, and major schools such as the Theravada and Mahasanghika took shape in this phase.
  3. c. -250–-232The Indian subcontinent · IndiaAfter converting to Buddhism, Ashoka generously patronized the sangha and dispatched Dharma-propagating envoys to Sri Lanka and the edges of the Hellenistic world; the sangha became the empire's core vehicle for religious transmission.
  4. c. -232–1South Asia · South AsiaThe sangha spread along trade routes to the Deccan Plateau, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia, forming local sangha centers and monastic networks in each region.

Sources