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________________ Homage to Vaisali His reception was followed by arrangements for his permanent connexion with the city. Besides the eight aforesaid shrines, the city built for him the pinnacled rest-house (Kutagara-sala) in its suburban of the city also placed at his disposal other resting-places of the kind that he loved. The courtesan Amrapali gave him her famous mangogrove and lady Balika her Balikarama. India's greatest men are always fond of her woods and forests, their solitude and silence, which are conducive to meditation. Her highest thought was the product, not of her cities but her hermitages. The Buddba delivered many of his discourses at the sylvan retreat of Mahavana. Some of the Pali Texts tell us how the Bhikkhus themselves acted as architects in supervising its constructions, and how, failing such supervision, a building came to grief because, "the laying was out of line and the walls fell down" (Cullavagga, VI). Vaisali is also noted in the history of Buddhism as the place where Buddha first permitted the order of pups against his own wishes at the instance of Ananda and his foster mother, Mabaprajapati, who became the first Buddhist nun at Vaisali. Vaisili marks another important land-mark in the history of Buddhism, as the place where the Second Buddhist Council was held. The Council was called for by the critical situation created in the Buddhist church, by the Buddhists of Vaisali, who introduced Ten Innovations in Doctrine and Practice, wbich were supposed to be against law. These innovations were first detected by the Buddhist Divine (Sthavira) Yasas, when he came to Vaisali and was staying in the Mahavana. Unable to convince these offending Monks of their error, he sent his summons to the Brethren of the different quarters, West, and South, and Avanti, to an Assembly, to decide the issue. The Brethren flocked together from different regions at his call. These monks decided that the most authoritative Buddhist of the day, the Divine Revata, should be asked to preside at the Assembly. It was with difficulty that he was found out and persuaded to come and take part in a controversy. The Vaisali monks tried to win over Revata by even bribing his disciple Uttara. The first question that Revata settled was that the sangha must decide the issue at the place of its origin, viz., Vaisali.
| SR No. | 012088 |
| Book Title | Vaishali Abhinandan Granth |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Yogendra Mishra |
| Publisher | Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology and Ahimsa |
| Publication Year | 1985 |
| Total Pages | 592 |
| Language | Hindi, English |
| Classification | Smruti_Granth |
| File Size | 17 MB |