Pudgalavada

The Pudgalavāda (Sanskrit; English: "Personalism"; Pali: Puggalavāda; Chinese: 補特伽羅論者; pinyin: Bǔtèjiāluō Lùnzhě) was a Buddhist philosophical view and also refers to a group of Nikaya Buddhist schools (mainly known as Vātsīputrīyas) that arose from the Sthavira nikāya. The school is believed to have been founded by the elder Vātsīputra in the third century BCE. They were a widely influential school in India and became particularly popular during the reign of emperor Harshavadana (606–647 CE). Harsha's sister Rajyasri was said to have joined the school as a nun. According to Dan Lusthaus, they were "one of the most popular mainstream Buddhist sects in India for more than a thousand years."