 Hi Stephen, we meet again... I have attempted a little on these Councils; this is my first foray into the world of Wiki, so i am a novice at formatting, providing links, citing references, etc. Any help with these is appreciated. I have added a few references at the bottom of the page, but i don't know the proper way to format them. I have made a few changes today, mostly after i read the Wikipedia's 'no original research' policy, so i took out a few of my own ideas. I think any attempt at synthesizing the various accounts is so complex and dubious it is probably best just to summarize the sources. Perhaps there could be a little more information about the various sources, or perhaps this is best done through internal links. I haven't done any research on the fourth (Kanishka) council, though you are obviously correct that there is no connection between this council and the Mahayana. I might, however, do something on the First Council: the account so far is ok, but could do with some improvement and expansion. Sujato.