Just a brief note here, since the topic of the ancient Sautrāntikas came up. The Pali term suttantika occurs a few times in the Vinaya, where it means “those bhikkhus who recite the Suttas”.
Dabba Mallaputta assigned lodgings for them all together, so that they could “recite the Suttas together” (te aññamaññaṁ suttantaṁ saṅgāyissantī).
Similar arrangements were made for “those who have memorized the Vinaya” (vinayadharā), for Dhamma teachers, for meditators, and even for those who wanted to waste their time with gossip and nonsense.
There’s no mention of those who recited the Abhidhammapitaka, because it didn’t yet exist.
Note that the word suttantika also occurs in the Abhidhamma in a slightly different sense. There it means the terms discussed as found in the Suttas, as opposed to the specifically Abhidhamma meanings.
