He belonged to a family of a Licchavi rājā of Vesāli and joined the Order when the Buddha visited that town, winning Arahantship in due course. According to the Apadāna verses quoted, he was born in Sāvatthi and was ordained under Sāriputta at the age of seven. Out of compassion for his patrons, he enjoyed what he received from them; the common minded thereupon deemed him self indulgent. Near him lived a fraudulent monk who deceived the people by pretending to live the simple life and was greatly honoured by them. Sakka, discerning this, visited Vasabha and questioned him concerning the ways of an impostor. The elder replied in two verses (Thag.139-40), and Sakka then warned the impostor and departed.

In the past, when the world was without a Buddha, Vasabha was a Jaṭila named Nārada on Samagga-pabbata, with a retinue of fourteen thousand. Seeing no one deserving of his worship, he made a cetiya of sand on the bank of the River Apadika, in the name of the Buddhas, gilded it and offered it his homage. Eighty times he was king of devas and three hundred times king of men (ThagA.i.257 ff). He is evidently to be identified with Pulinathūpiya Thera of the Apadāna. Ap.ii.437 f.