Dharmaguptaka. One of the Eighteen schools of early Buddhism patronised by Indo-Scythian rulers and based in north-west India, hence their early importance in central Asia and China. According to some sources however, they were based in South India. The Vinaya of this school, which survives in Chinese, is important since its lineage for the ordination of nuns (bhikṣuṇī) has survived until the present day. Accordingly, it has been adopted by those attempting to reintroduce the bhikṣuṇī order into Tibetan and south-west Asian Buddhist circles, where the ordination lineage has died out.

A Dictionary of Buddhism, Oxford University Press, 2003, 2004 (which is available in electronic version from answer.com)