（Skt/The Great Assembly; Vn/Dai-Chung-Be）. "A body which broke away from the Elder （Theravada） tradition of Buddhism after the Council of Pataliputra in 350 BCE. According to tradition， the assembly gave rise to seven subschools， and it may be regarded as the forerunner of the Mahayana movement in later centuries. The Mahasamghikas distinguished themselves from the Sthaviras doctrinally in their conception of the Buddha as supra-mundane， and socially by their acceptance of popular religious beliefs and practices， allowing a greater role to the laity."
"According to the Buddhist canonical tradition， a sharp difference broke out among the monks regarding the observance of certain Vinaya rules， just a hundred years after the 'Great Demise'. Two different groups placed their demands for clarification before the second Council at Vaisali. A section of the orthodox monks regarded the Vinaya rules as the very foundation， the rockbed of the monastic life. The rules must be entirely preserved and followed. Some liberal monks opposed this view. According to the Ceylonese Chronicles， this dispute was not solved in the Council; instead， it was followed by the 'Great Schism' （Mahabheda） which split the order into the Theravada and the Mahasanghika schools. 'The Mahasanghika became the starting point of the development of the Mahayana by their more liberal attitude and by some of their special theories' （Edward Conze， Buddhism: Its Essence and Development， Oxford，1951.）