BharatNotes Theravada
noun (uncountable); also adjectiveUsage in a UPSC answer
Ashoka's dispatch of Mahinda (his son or a monk) to the Anuradhapura court of King Devanampiya Tissa around 247 BCE established the Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka, from where it subsequently radiated across mainland Southeast Asia as a state-supported form of Buddhism.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Word Family
Theravada (noun/adj), thera (Pali noun — elder monk), sthaviravada (Sanskrit equivalent noun), Pali Canon (related compound noun), arhat (related noun — the liberated individual), Sangha (related noun — monastic community)
Root
Pali thera (elder, senior monk; from Sanskrit sthavira = firm, established) + vāda (teaching, doctrine; from vad = to speak) → 'doctrine of the elders'
Etymology
From Pali thera (elder, from Sanskrit sthavira, from sthā — to stand firm, be established) and vāda (doctrine, teaching, from vad — to speak, to propound). The school traces its direct lineage to the Sthaviravada party that emerged from the first schism in the Buddhist Sangha at the Second Council at Vaishali (c. 383 BCE). The term 'Theravada' is self-designatory; the Pali Canon was codified in written form in Sri Lanka c. 1st century BCE.
Memory Hook
THERA-VADA: THERA = ELDER (like a senior professor), VADA = TEACHING. The elders' teaching — the oldest, most conservative school, sticking strictly to what the original monks (elders) said the Buddha taught.
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