Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v1.c14.73

v1.c14.73

Gaṅgātiriya Thera.—An arahant. He was a householder named Datta of Sāvatthi. On discovering that he had, though unwittingly, committed incest with both his mother and sister, he was overcome with anguish and left the world. He adopted a course of austerity, dwelling in a hut of palm leaves on the bank of the Ganges, hence his name. For a whole year he kept silence; in the second year he spoke but once to a woman who, in filling his bowl, spilt the milk, wishing to discover if he were dumb. In the third year he became an arahant.