A celebrated author, generally referred to as Ācariya. Various works are attributed to him, but as there seem to have been several authors of the same name (Gv. (p.66 f ) mentions four), it is difficult to assign their works separately. The best known, distinguished by the name of Ācariya, is said (Gv. p.69) to have written fourteen books. The Sāsanavaṃsa (p.33) records that he lived at Badaratittha in South India.

His works show that he was a native of Kāñcipura. His period is uncertain, though it is generally agreed that he is posterior to Buddhaghosa. He seems to have studied in the Mahāvihāra, because he mentions this fact in the introduction to his books (e.g., the Petavatthu Commentary). It is quite likely that he studied the Tamil Commentaries as well and that he wrote at Badaratittha. (Hiouen Thsang, Beal. ii.229, says that Dhammapāla was a clever youth of Kāñcipura and that the king gave him his daughter. However, Dhammapāla, not wishing to marry, prayed before an image of the Buddha. The gods took him to a place far away where he was ordained by the monks).

The Khuddakanikāya was his chief study, and seven of his works are commentaries on the books of poetry preserved in the Canon — the Thera° and Theri-Gāthā, Udāna, Vimāna° and Peta Vatthu, Itivuttaka and Cariyāpiṭaka. His other works are a commentary on the Nettippakaraṇa, and on the Visuddhimagga (called the Paramatthamañjūsā), Subcommentaries (ṭīkās) (called Līnatthavaṇṇanā) on Buddhaghosa’s Commentaries to the Four Nikāyas and another on the Jātakaṭṭhakathā. He is also credited with having written a tīkā on the Buddhavaṃsa Commentary and on the Abhidhammaṭṭhakathā.