Previous Year Question
With reference to the religious history of India, consider the following statements:
Sthaviravadins belong to Mahayana Buddhism.
Lokottaravada sect was an offshoot of Mahasanghika sect of Buddhism.
The deification of Buddha by Mahasanghikas fostered Mahayana Buddhism.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Correct Answer: B
Detailed Solution
Statement 1 is incorrect. Sthaviravada and Mahasanghika are associated with an early division within the Buddhist Sangha. The Sthavira tradition cannot be classified as a branch of Mahayana Buddhism; Mahayana developed through a later historical process.
A qualification is useful here: ancient Sthaviravada should not simply be equated in every respect with modern Theravada. Theravada has historical roots in the Sthavira lineage, but the evolution of the early Buddhist schools was more complex.
Statement 2 is correct. There is unusually strong primary textual evidence for this relationship. The Sanskrit Mahāvastu identifies its own textual tradition as that of the “Ārya-Mahāsāṃghikānāṃ Lokottaravādināṃ”, directly connecting the Lokottaravadins with the Mahasanghika tradition.
This is particularly valuable because the Mahasanghika–Lokottaravada connection is not merely a modern secondary classification; it is reflected in the textual tradition of the Mahāvastu itself.
Statement 3 is correct. Mahasanghika-related traditions developed an increasingly transcendent or lokottara conception of the Buddha, presenting his nature and activities as extraordinary and supramundane. The Mahāvastu itself repeatedly characterises aspects of the Buddha as lokottara.
Mahayana subsequently developed an even more expansive understanding of Buddhahood, while Bodhisattvas assumed great doctrinal and devotional importance. Mahasanghika tendencies are therefore regarded as an important precursor to later Mahayana developments.
This should not be simplified into the claim that Mahayana arose exclusively and directly from a single Mahasanghika sect. Its emergence was historically complex. Statement 3 is correct in the broader sense of intellectual and doctrinal continuity.