Out of the 18 branches of Hinayana, the one that broke off from the Theravada branch at the Second Buddhist Council. Because it made a clear distinction between an arhat and a Buddha, it is considered by some Western scholars as a forerunner of Mahayana.
Tibetan: དགེ་འདུན་ཕལ་ཆེན་པོ། dGe-'dun phal-chen-po
Sanskrit: mahāsāṃghika
Other languages