Nikāya in the context of "Early Buddhist schools"

The Mahāsāṃghika (Brahmi: 𑀫𑀳𑀸𑀲𑀸𑀁𑀖𑀺𑀓, "of the Great Sangha", Chinese: 大眾部; pinyin: Dà zhòng bù; Vietnamese: Đại chúng bộ) was a major division (Nikāya) of the early Buddhist schools in India. They were one of the two original communities that emerged from the first schism of the original pre-sectarian Buddhist tradition (the other being the Sthavira Nikāya). This schism is traditionally held to have occurred after the Second Buddhist council, which occurred at some point during or after the reign of Kalashoka. The Mahāsāṃghika Nikāya developed into numerous sects which spread throughout ancient India.

Some scholars think that the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya (monastic rule) represents the oldest Buddhist monastic source, although some other scholars think that it is not the case. While the Mahāsāṃghika tradition is no longer in existence, many scholars look to the Mahāsāṃghika tradition as an early source for some ideas that were later adopted by Mahāyāna Buddhism. Some of these ideas include the view that the Buddha was a fully transcendent being (term "lokottaravāda", "transcendentalism"), the idea that there are many contemporaneous buddhas and bodhisattvas throughout the universe, the doctrine of the inherent purity and luminosity of the mind (Skt: prakṛtiś ćittasya prabhāsvarā), the doctrine of reflexive awareness (svasaṃvedana) and the doctrine of prajñapti-matra (absolute nominalism or pure conceptualism).

The Khuddaka Nikāya (lit. 'Minor Collection') is the last of the five Nikāyas, or collections, in the Sutta Pitaka, which is one of the "three baskets" that compose the Pali Tipitaka, the sacred scriptures of Theravada Buddhism. This nikaya consists of fifteen (Thailand), fifteen (Sri Lanka follows Buddhaghosa's list), or eighteen books (Burma) in different editions on various topics attributed to Gautama Buddha and his chief disciples.

The word khuddaka in the title means ‘small’ in Pali and Nikāya is ‘collection’. The equivalent collection in the Chinese and Tibetan canons is the Kṣudraka Āgama, but there is substantial variation among the collections.