Gaṇa, kula, śākhā

The Kalpasūtra's long redaction is an organisation chart. A gaṇa is a teacher's whole following; a kula is one line of succession within it; a śākhā is a line that branches off from a teacher. Eight gaṇas are named, each with exactly four śākhās, and six of them with their kulas — six, three, four, seven, three and four: twenty-seven.

One from Bhadrabāhu's pupil Godāsa; one from Mahāgiri's; six from Suhastin's twelve pupils. Then the later śākhās down the trunk — Madhyamā, Vidyādharī, Uccanāgarī with four of its own, Brahmadvīpikā, Āryavajrā, and Vajrasena's four. And one alone: the Trairāśika of Rohagupta, which the commentaries call a schism and the Kalpasūtra calls a śākhā, and nothing more.