He was the son of a very poor woman of Sāvatthi. While in labour his mother fell into a long and deep swoon, and her kinsfolk, thinking her dead, took her to the cemetery and prepared for cremation. However, a spirit prevented the fire from burning with a storm of wind and rain, and they went away. The child was safely born and the mother died. The spirit, in human shape, took the child and put it in the watchman’s hut, feeding it for a time. After that the watchman adopted it, and the child grew up with the watchman’s son, Suppiya (q.v.) He was called Sopāka, (the “waif”) because he was born in the cemetery. When he was seven years old he came under the notice of the Buddha, who visited him in the cemetery. Gladdened by the Buddha’s teaching, he sought his father’s consent and entered the Order. The Buddha gave him, as his subject of meditation, the thought of mettā, and Sopāka, developing insight, soon attained Arahantship.

In the time of Kakusandha Buddha, he was a householder’s son and gave the Buddha some bījapūra-fruits. He also provided three monks with milk-rice daily to the end of his life. In another birth he gave a meal of milk-rice to a Pacceka Buddha (Thag.vs.33; ThagA.i.94 f).

He is perhaps identical with Vibhītakamiñjaya of the Apadāna. Ap.ii.396.