Tamrashatiya

The Tāmraśāṭīya (Sanskrit: ताम्रशाटीय, ), also called Tāmraparṇīya (Sanskrit; Pali: Tambapaṇṇiya) or Theriya Nikāya (Pali), was one of the early schools of Buddhism and a Sri Lankan branch of the Vibhajyavāda (ancestor of the Theravāda) school based in Sri Lanka.

Its sūtras were written mainly in Pali; and the Pali Canon of Buddhism largely borrowed from this school. The Tāmraśāṭīya is also known as the Southern transmission or Mahaviharavasin tradition. This contrasts with Sarvāstivāda or the 'Northern transmission', which was mostly written in Sanskrit and translated into Chinese and Tibetic languages.