One of the heterodox sects which branched off from the Theravāda in Ceylon (Mhv.v.13).
They formed a part of the Dhammarucikas, and separated from that body three hundred and 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., and MT.680).
According to the Singhalese Nikāyasangrahaya (Quoted in Geiger's Dīpavamsa and Mahāvamsa, p.90), the Sāgalikas took their name from their leader, Sāgala Thera, and their separation took place seven hundred and ninety five years after the Buddha's death, in the reign of King Gothābhaya. Moggallāna I. gave the vihāras of Dalha and Dāthākondañña, on Sīhagiri, to the Dhammarucikas and 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.