He belonged to a brahmin family of Sāvatthi and entered the Order after hearing the Buddha teach. He attained to entire purity of conduct, but, because of some action in his former life, was attacked by leprosy, and his limbs gradually decayed. He therefore lived in the infirmary. One day Sāriputta, while visiting the sick, saw him and gave him an exercise on contemplation of feeling. Practising this, Samitigutta developed insight and became an Arahant. Then he remembered his past action and uttered a verse (Thag.vs.81).

In the past he was a householder and offered jasmine flowers to Vipassī Buddha. In another birth he saw a Pacceka Buddha and insulted him, calling him a “leprous starveling” and spitting in his presence. For this he suffered long in hell, and was reborn on earth in the time of Kassapa Buddha. He became a wanderer (paribbājaka), and, losing his temper with a follower of the Buddha, cursed him: “May you become a leper.” He also soiled the bath powders placed by people at bathing places; hence his affliction in the present age (ThagA.i.175 f).

He is evidently identical with Jātipūjaka Thera of the Apadāna. Ap.i.154.