Cullapindapātiya(°pātika)-Tissa

A monk mentioned in the Commentaries (E.g., MA.i.355) in explaining the term mutta-muttaka. A certain lay-woman waited on him for twelve years. One day a fire broke out in the village and burnt her house, together with those of others. The monks who were fed at neighbouring houses went there to enquire whether anything had been served, but Tissa did not arrive until the mealtime, and when given a meal which the woman had prepared with great difficulty, ate it and went away without a word. The woman, however, was not a whit disturbed by the taunts of her neighbours.

This may be the Elder who, in the Anguttara Commentary (AA.i.21f), is mentioned as having resided in Gāmendavālavihāra in Rohana and ordained Milakkha-Tissa. The same Commentary (i.367) mentions a Cullapindapātiya-Tissa of Girivihāra in (Ceylon). He, with his divine eye, saw a Tamil gate-keeper of Madhuanganagāma who, having been a fisherman for fifty years, lay dying. The Elder went to his house and made him repeat the Refuges and the Precepts. The man could not repeat beyond the first Precept, but he was born after death in the Cātummahārājika-world, and came to tell the Elder about it.

The Visuddhi Magga (p.116) speaks of an Elder of the same name who had three pupils. They came to him and said they were prepared to do anything whatever for his sake, even to suffer torture and die. He thought them "possible fellows" and preached to them, whereupon they became arahants. The same Elder it may be who saw an elephant-corpse in Kāladīghavāpi Lake and developed his meditation on the "wormful abomination (Ibid., p.191).

Dictionary of Pali Proper Names, G P Malalasekera (1899-1973), which is available as printed version from