A Malla prince (rājaputta). He was a disciple of Āḷāra Kālāma, and one day, while on his way from Kusinārā to Pāvā, he saw the Buddha seated under a tree by the roadside and stayed to talk to him. He mentioned that once five hundred carts had passed by where Āḷāra sat, and yet so deep was he in meditation that he had failed to notice them. The Buddha told him how, when he himself was in Ātumā in the Bhusāgāra, there was a great thunderstorm which killed two peasants and four oxen, but that he had heard and seen nothing, so deep was his concentration. Pukkusa was greatly impressed by this statement, and, having declared himself a follower of the Buddha, he gave to the Buddha two robes of cloth of gold, one of which, at the Buddha’s suggestion, he handed to Ānanda. When Pukkusa had left, Ānanda draped one robe over the Buddha, and was greatly astonished at its pale appearance in comparison with the deep gold of the Buddha’s body (D.ii.130 ff).

Buddhaghosa says (DA.ii.569) that Pukkusa was a merchant, and was the owner of the five hundred carts that had crossed the Kakuṭṭhā (q.v.) shortly before the incident above mentioned.