He was born in Sāvatthi in a family of cemetery keepers. Converted by the teaching of his friend, Sopāka Thera, he entered the Order and attained Arahantship.

In the time of Padumuttara Buddha he was a brahmin, named Varuṇa, who left his ten children and became an ascetic in the forest. There he met the Buddha and his monks and gave them fruit. He belonged to a warrior (khattiya) family in the time of Kassapa Buddha, but through pride of birth and learning used to detract his colleagues hence his birth in a low caste in his last life. Thag.vs.32; ThagA.i.92 f; Ap.i.452 f.