A Thera of Ceylon, an arahant. He belonged to a minister's family and was born in a village near Dakkhinagiri-vihára. When he came of age, he entered the Order, learned the whole of the Tipitaka, and, on going with a large concourse to see his teacher, was asked to give up his following and go into solitude to practise meditation. He went to the Vátakasitapabbata-vihára, practised meditation and became an arahant. While living in the Cetiyapabbata-vihára, he was once worshipping at the Kantaka-cetiya and was seated at the foot of a Kálatimabara tree. (Legend says on the night of the new moon, thus completing the circle of Kálas). One of the monks asked him a question on the Kálakáráma Sutta and the Elder preached a sermon based on the sutta. King Tissa (probably Saddhá-Tissa), who was in the vicinity, came to listen to the sermon, which lasted throughout the night; the king remained standing the whole time. Greatly pleased, the king, at the end of the sermon, offered the sovereignty of Ceylon to the monk.
It is said that the Elder had been the Nigantha Mahá-Saccaka in the time of the Buddha, and that the Buddha had preached to him the Mahá-Saccaka Sutta, not because he could understand it then, but because the Buddha knew that it would help him to rise to eminence in this last life as Kála-Buddharakkhita. MA.i.469f