The Sangha

Over the centuries the term "community" (sangha) has tended to be monopolized by monastic institutions. In fifth-century BCE India, by contrast, the word sangha denoted republican societies (such as Malla and the Vajjian Confederacy) that were governed by assemblies rather than monarchies (such as Magadha and Kosala) that were ruled by a sovereign lord. Not only did Gotama explicitly model his community on that of a republican society, but he repeatedly stated that the assembly of his followers was fourfold: it consisted of bhikkhus and bhikkhunis, male adherents and female adherents. Moreover, this community was to govern itself by adhering to an impersonal body of laws (dharma) rather than deferring to the will of a senior mendicant ) like Mahakassapa). And, crucially, membership of the noble community (ariyasangha) was to be determined not by social status but by stream entry—not by whether one was a renunciant or a householder but by whether one had made the eightfold path one's own.

~Stephen Batchelor, in after buddhism