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One of the heterodox sects which branched off from the
Theravāda in Ceylon (Mhv.v.13).
They formed a part of the Dhammarucikas, and separated
from that body three hundred and forty one years after the establishment of
Buddhism in Ceylon. They lived at first in the Dakkhina vihāra, but later went
to the Jetavana vihāra, built by Mahāsena. They made certain alterations in the
Ubhatovibhanga (MT.175, 176; Cf. Sās.p.24; see also Mhv.xxxvii.32 ff., and
MT.680).
According to the Singhalese Nikāyasangrahaya (Quoted in
Geiger's Dīpavamsa and Mahāvamsa, p.90), the Sāgalikas took their name from
their leader, Sāgala Thera, and their separation took place seven hundred and
ninety five years after the Buddha's death, in the reign of King Gothābhaya.
Moggallāna I. gave the vihāras of Dalha and Dāthākondañña, on Sīhagiri, to the
Dhammarucikas and the Sāgalikas, while he also gave the Rājinī nunnery for the
use of the nuns of the Sāgalika sect (Cv.xxxix.41, 43). Aggabodhi II. gave the
Veluvana vihāra, which he had built, to the Sāgalikas (Cv.xlii.43). Kassapa IV.
built for them the Kassapasenavihāra. Cv.lii.17.

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