A Gandhabba. His favourite instrument was the Beluvapanduvíná (q.v.). He was considered a favourite of the Buddha (DA.iii.699), and when Sakka visited the Buddha at the Indasálaguhá in order to ask him certain questions, he sent Pañcasikha in advance, that he might obtain permission for the interview. The episode in given in full in the Sakkapañha Sutta (D.ii.263ff.).
Pañcasikha approached the Buddha and playing on his viná, sang of the beauties of the Buddha, the Doctrine, Arahants and Love. The verses really formed a love poem addressed to his beloved, Bhaddá Suriyavaccasá, daughter of the Gandhabba Timbarú. The Buddha praised his music and song and questioned him about the poem. He confessed that when the Buddha was staying under the Ajapála nirgodba, before the Enlightenment, he (Pañcasikha) had met Suriyavaccasá going with her father to dance before Sakka. Pañcasikha thereupon fell in love with her; but she favoured the suit of Sikhandi, son of Mátali. Pañcasikha thereupon composed a song, which he sang to her. She was greatly pleased with the references in the song to the Sákyan sage of whom she had heard when she went to the Sudhammásabhá, (on this occasion Sakka, pronounced his 8 fold eulogy of the Buddha, contained in the Mahágovinda Sutta, says Buddhaghosa, DA.ii.704) and she consented to marry Pañcasikha. It is said that Sakka blessed the marriage in return for Pañcasikha's intercession with the Buddha on his behalf.
In the Janavasabha Sutta (D.ii.211; also in the Mahágovinda Sutta, D.ii.230) it is stated that when Brahmá Sanankumára appeared before the assembly of the gods of Távatimsa and materialized himself he assumed the form of Pañcasikha. Buddhaghosa says (DA.ii.640), by way of explanation, that all the devas loved Pañcasikha and wished to resemble him. In the Mahágovinda Sutta (D.i.220; cp. Mtu.iii.197ff) Pañcasikha is represented as conveying to the Buddha a full report of the happenings in the assembly of the devas, when Sakka spoke the Buddha's praises.
No really satisfactory explanation is found in the Commentaries of Pañcasikha's name. Buddhaghosa says (DA.ii.647) Pañcasikho ti pañcacúlo, pañcakundaliko, and goes on to say that Pañcasikha was born once as a human being, and, while yet a boy wearing his hair in five knots* (pañcacúlakadáraka kále), he became chief of those who tended the calves.
* This is done even now in Ceylon, where young boys' hair is tied round their heads in several knots. But in one place (DA.i.296) Buddhaghosa says that one way of insulting a man was to shave his head, leaving him five locks of hair (garaháyá ti pañcasikhá mundakaranam). And, again (SA.i.171), he mentions that Sanankumára retained his eternal youth because in a previous life he had developed jhána while yet a lad (pañcasikhakumárakále). See also J.vi.496, where a traitor had his hair tied in five knots as a sign of disgrace.
Together with other lads he engaged in works of public utility, such as repairing roads, digging wells, building rest houses, etc., and he died while young. He was reborn in the Cátummahárájika world, destined to live for ninety thousand years, his body three gávutas in height. He wore on his person one hundred cartloads of ornaments and rubbed nine pots of perfume on his body. He wore red robes, and on his head a chaplet of red gold, round which his hair was arranged in five locks (kuntalikehi), which fell back as in the case of a young boy (pañcacúli-kadárakapariháren'eva).
It was Pañcasikha who first received from the king of the Cátummahárájika worlds and their ministers reports of good deeds done by human beings. These he would pass on to Mátali, who, in his turn, presented them to Sakka (DA.ii.650). On the day of the Devorohana, when the Buddha descended from Távatimsa, Pañcasikha was present to render honour to the Teacher in song and music (DhA.iii.225; AA.i.72; Vsm.392). According to the legends (E.g., Mhv.xxx.75; xxxi.82) he was present with the Buddha on other occasions as well.
Pañcasikha was evidently not only the name of a person, but also of an office (like Sakka), for in the Bilárakosiya Játaka (q.v.) Ananda is said to have been born as Pañcasikha and to have helped Sakka and others to make of Bílárakosiya a generous man (J.iv.69). Similarly, in the Sudhábhojana Játaka (q.v.), Anuruddha is identified with Pañcasikha. J.v.412.