Nephew of Asita (Káladevala). When Asita realized that he would not live to see the Buddha, he sought out Nálaka and asked him to leave the world at once and become an ascetic and hold himself in readiness to profit by the Buddha's Enlightenment.
This Nálaka did, though possessing eighty thousand crores of wealth, and he spent his time in Himavá. When the time came, he visited the Buddha seven days after the Buddha's first sermon and questioned him on the Moneyyapatipadá (also called the Nálakapatipadá, because it is included in the Nálaka Sutta). Nálaka retired once more into Himavá and there attained arahantship. There he spent seven months leaning against a golden rock, practising patipadá in its highest form. After his death the Buddha, with his monks, visited the scene of his death, cremated his remains, and had a cetiya built over them.
It is said that Nálaka’s aspiration to learn and practise the Moneyyapatipadá was made in the time of Padumuttara Buddha. J.i.55; SNA.ii.483ff., 501. The story as drawn from Tibetan sources differs greatly from this story. (See, e.g. Rockhill: op. cit., p. 18, 45 f). In the Mahávastu (iii.380, 387) he is called Kátyáyana.