(v.l. Puṇṇīkā) An Arahant. She was born in Anāthapiṇḍika’s household, as the daughter of a domestic slave. She was called Puṇṇā because, with her birth, the number of children in the household reached one hundred.

On the day, on which she heard the Sīhanāda Sutta she became a Stream-winner. She converted the brahmin Sotthiya, who believed in purification through water (the conversation is recorded in Thig. vs. 236-51), and thereby won the esteem of Anāthapiṇḍika, so that he freed her. Thereupon she entered the Order and in due course became an Arahant.

In the time of Vipassī Buddha she was born in a clansman’s family and entered the Order. She learned the Tipiṭaka and became a distinguished teacher. She did the same under five other Buddhas — Sikhī, Vessabhū, Kakusandha, Koṇāgamana, and Kassapa — but, owing to her tendency to pride, she was unable to root out the defilements. ThigA. 199 ff; Ap.ii.611.

Buddhaghosa, however, say of this Therī (MA.i.347 f; the story, with very different details, is given in AA.ii.716 f) that she was a slave girl of Anāthapiṇḍika. On one occasion, when the Buddha was about to set out on a tour, Anāthapiṇḍika and the other chief patrons of the Buddha, loth to lose him for several months, begged him to remain with them. However, the Buddha declined this request, and Puṇṇā, seeing Anāthapiṇḍika very dejected and learning the reason, offered to persuade the Buddha to stay. So she approached him and said that she would take the Three Refuges with the Five Precepts if he would postpone his tour. The Buddha at once agreed, and Puṇṇā was freed and adopted as Anāthapiṇḍika’s daughter. She later joined the Order, and became an Arahant after listening to an admonition (Therigāthā, vs.3, about Puṇṇā 2) of the Buddha, who appeared before her in a ray of glory. Here we undoubtedly have a confusion of legends. See Puṇṇā (2).

It may be this same Puṇṇā who is mentioned in the Milindapañha (p.115) as one of the seven people whose acts of devotion brought them recompense in this very life.