The TÃÂmraà ÂÃÂá¹Âëya (Sanskrit: à ¤¤à ¤¾à ¤®à ¥Âà ¤°à ¤¶à ¤¾à ¤Âà ¥Âà ¤¯, ), also called TÃÂmrapará¹Âëya (Sanskrit; Pali: Tambapaá¹Âá¹Âiya) or Theriya NikÃÂya (Pali), was one of the early schools of Buddhism and a Sri Lankan branch of the VibhajyavÃÂda (ancestor of the TheravÃÂda) school based in Sri Lanka.
Its sà «tras were written mainly in Pali; and the Pali Canon of Buddhism largely borrowed from this school. The TÃÂmraà ÂÃÂá¹Âëya is also known as the Southern transmission or Mahaviharavasin tradition. This contrasts with SarvÃÂstivÃÂda or the 'Northern transmission', which was mostly written in Sanskrit and translated into Chinese and Tibetic languages.
The Tamrashatiya played a major role in the development of TheravÃÂda Buddhism and influenced Buddhist thoughts in Myanmar, Thailand, and other parts of Southeast Asia.
Several etymologies are given for the name of this school.
TÃÂmra is a Sanskrit term referring to the color of red copper, describing the color of the monks' robes. Based on the standard Chinese translation of the term, it has also been suggested that "copper" refers to copper plates on which the Tripiá¹Âaka was written.
TÃÂmrapará¹Âi was also an old name for Sri Lanka, and the origin of the Greek equivalent Taprobana, possibly referring to the monks who established Buddhism here.
The TÃÂmraà ÂÃÂá¹Âëya school was established in modern-day Sri Lanka in the city of Anuradhapura, but also remained active in Andhra and other parts of South India, such as Vanavasa in modern Karnataka, and later across Southeast Asia.
The school survived in Sri Lanka and established three main branches:
According to the MahÃÂvaá¹Âsa the latter two traditions were suppressed and destroyed after the MahÃÂvihÃÂra tradition gained political power.