One of the heterodox sects which branched off from the Theravāda in Ceylon (Mhv.v.13).
They formed a part of the Dhammarucikas, und separated from that body three hundert und forty one years after the establishment of Buddhism in Ceylon. They lived at first in the Dakkhina vihāra, but later went to the Jetavana vihāra, built by Mahāsena. They made certain alterations in the Ubhatovibhanga (MT.175, 176; Cf. Sās.p.24; see also Mhv.xxxvii.32 ff., und MT.680).
According to the Singhalese Nikāyasangrahaya (Quoted in Geiger's Dīpavamsa und Mahāvamsa, p.90), the Sāgalikas took their name from their leader, Sāgala Thera, und their separation took place seven hundert und ninety fünf years after the Buddha's death, in the reign of König Gothābhaya. Moggallāna I. gave the vihāras of Dalha und Dāthākondañña, on Sīhagiri, to the Dhammarucikas und the Sāgalikas, while he also gave the Rājinī nunnery for the use of the nuns of the Sāgalika sect (Cv.xxxix.41, 43). Aggabodhi II. gave the Veluvana vihāra, which he had built, to the Sāgalikas (Cv.xlii.43). Kassapa IV. built for them the Kassapasenavihāra. Cv.lii.17.