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Kasyapiya


Kāśyapīya (Sanskrit: काश्यपीय; Pali: Kassapiyā or Kassapikā; traditional Chinese: 飲光部; ; pinyin: Yǐnguāng Bù) was one of the early Buddhist schools in India.

The name Kāśyapīya is believed to be derived from Kāśyapa, one of the original missionaries sent by King Ashoka to the Himavant country. The Kāśyapīyas were also called the Haimavatas.

The Kāśyapīyas are believed to have become an independent school ca. 190 BCE. According to the Theravadin Mahāvaṃsa, the Kāśyapīya were an offshoot of the Sarvāstivāda. However, according to the Mahāsāṃghika account, the Kāśyapīya sect descended from the Vibhajyavādins.

Xuanzang and Yijing note small fragments of the Kāśyapīya sect still in existence around the 7th century, suggesting that much of the sect may have adopted the Mahāyāna teachings by this time.

In the 7th century CE, Yijing grouped the Mahīśāsaka, Dharmaguptaka, and Kāśyapīya together as sub-sects of the Sarvāstivāda, and stated that these three groups were not prevalent in the "five parts of India," but were located in the some parts of Oḍḍiyāna, Khotan, and Kucha.

Between 148 and 170 CE, the Parthian monk An Shigao came to China and translated a work which describes the color of monastic robes (Skt. kāṣāya) utitized in five major Indian Buddhist sects, called Da Biqiu Sanqian Weiyi (Ch. 大比丘三千威儀). Another text translated at a later date, the Śāriputraparipṛcchā, contains a very similar passage corroborating this information. In both sources, members of the Kāśyapīya sect are described as wearing magnolia robes. The relevant portion of the Mahāsāṃghika Śāriputraparipṛcchā reads, "The Kāśyapīya school are diligent and energetic in guarding sentient beings. They wear magnolia robes."


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