Taught to Upasāḷaka. The story of the past is that of a brahmin Upasāḷaka (identified with Upasāḷaka). He instructed his son that after death he should be burnt in a cemetery unpolluted by the presence of outcasts. While descending Gijjhakūṭa, having ascended the mountain in order to find such a spot, they met the Bodhisatta, who was a holy ascetic, possessed of various attainments and mystic powers. When the Bodhisatta had heard their story, he revealed to them that on that very same spot Upasāḷaka had been burnt fourteen thousand times, and taught them the way of deathlessness (J.ii.54 ff).

The Upasāḷaka Jātaka was taught by the Buddha to the novice Vanavāsī-Tissa when the Buddha visited him in his forest solitude. DhA.ii.99.