Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v2.c27.273

v2.c27.273

**Pañcasīlasamādānīya Thera.**—An arahant. He belonged to a family of Māhāsāla brahmins in Vesālī and became an arahant at the age of five. It is said that he heard his parents take the five precepts, and remembered his own actions of a past life when, in the time of Anomadassī Buddha, he was a ferryman on the Candavatī and took the five precepts from the Buddha’s disciple Nisabha, keeping them for one hundred thousand years. Thirty times he was king of the devas and five hundred times king of men.¹ 1. Pañcahatthiya Thera.—An arahant. He once saw the Buddha Sumedha, to whom he offered five handfuls of lilies, which formed a canopy over the Buddha’s head. Later, he was king five times under the name of Hatthiya.¹