Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v2.c36.3833

v2.c36.3833

Later he transferred his allegiance to Kandaramasaka, who died, as the Buddha had prophesied, fallen from grace and fame. The next teacher to win the admiration of Sunakkhatta was Pāṭikaputta, and Sunakkhatta wished the Buddha to pay honour to him. But the Buddha quoted to Sunakkhatta the words of Ajita, the Licchavi general who had been born in Tāvatimsa, to the effect that Pāṭikaputta was “a liar and a cheat,” and was later able to prove that these words were true. But Sunakkhatta did not return to the Order. He had probably remained in it for several years before actually leaving it. For we find in the Mahāli Sutta⁵ the Licchavi Oṭṭhaddha relating to the Buddha how Sunakkhatta had come to him three years after joining the Order, claiming that he could see divine forms but could not hear heavenly sounds. Buddhaghosa explains⁶ that he could not acquire the power of hearing divine sounds because in a previous birth he had ruptured the ear-drum of a holy monk and made him deaf. The Sutta itself gives⁷ as the reason that he had only developed one-sided concentration of mind.