vesâlî

Updated: June 1, 2025

We must not suppose that the meetings held at Râjagaha and Vesâlî were similar to the Council of Nicaea or that they produced the works edited by the Pali Text Society. Such terms as canon, dogma and council, though indispensable, are misleading at this period. We want less formal equivalents for the same ideas.

Sir Charles Eliot - Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 1

Equally conclusive, though also negative, is the fact that in the accounts of the assemblies at Râjagaha and Vesâlî when there is a dispute as to the correct ruling on a point, there is no appeal to writing but merely to the memory of the oldest and most authoritative monks.

Sir Charles Eliot - Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 1

It relates how a monk called Yasa, when a guest of the monks of Vesâlî, quarrelled with them because they accepted money from the laity and, departing thence, sought for support among the Theras or elders of the south and west.

Sir Charles Eliot - Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 1