A reference to the Buddha Tissa, the seventeenth of the twenty-four Buddhas preceding Gotama.

The ninth of the future Buddhas listed in the Anāgatavaṃsa.

One of the two chief disciples of the Buddha Vipassī, son of the royal chief priest, to whom that Buddha taught his first discourse.

One of the two chief disciples of the Buddha Dīpaṅkara.

A leading disciple of the Buddha Kassapa and that Buddha’s own brother, who joined the Order after being taught that true ‘foulness’ lies in mental defilements rather than in eating meat.

A monk reborn as a Brahmā of great psychic power, visited soon after his rebirth by Mahā-Moggallāna and questioned about the fate of devas and Brahmas assured of salvation.

A friend of the monk Metteyya who briefly returned to lay life after his brother’s death but, brought back by Metteyya, was taught the Tissametteyya Sutta by the Buddha and attained Arahantship.

The personal name of the monk known by his clan name Metteyya, friend of Tissa (7).

An elder of Sāvatthi who, after his sister had a coarse gift of cloth spun into a fine robe for him, died the very night it was finished and was reborn as a louse in the robe until the Buddha had its division delayed for seven days out of compassion.

A monk who, unlike his excited fellows on hearing the Buddha would soon die, remained calmly resolved to attain Arahantship first, a determination the Buddha praised though it was initially mistaken for indifference.

An Arahant of a brahmin family in Rājagaha who, having taught the Vedas to five hundred pupils, was so struck by the Buddha’s majesty that he joined the Order and attained Arahantship.

A king of Roruva and unseen ally of Bimbisāra who, deeply moved by a painted depiction of the Buddha’s life and an inscription of the Law of Dependent Origination sent by Bimbisāra, renounced his throne to become a monk and attain Arahantship.

An Arahant, son of the Buddha’s paternal aunt Amitā, who overcame his early pride, irritability, and laziness in the Order after the Buddha personally roused him from a nap and taught him the Tissa Sutta.

A novice, son of a gatekeeper, who joined the Order with some carpenters and constantly complained of offerings while boasting of his supposedly wealthy family, a trait the Buddha traced to a similar past life told in the Kaṭāhaka Jātaka.

A monk known as Kosambivāsī Tissa who accidentally blinded his young novice with a fan; deeply remorseful, he was told by the boy, already an Arahant, that there was nothing to forgive, and Tissa himself attained Arahantship on hearing the Buddha’s teaching on the matter.

A monk known as Asubhakammika-Tissa, cited in the commentaries as an exemplary good friend whose company aids the meditation on bodily repulsiveness in overcoming lust.

A master calligrapher remembered even after his death for his fine writing.

One of the chief lay patrons of the Buddha Padumuttara.

A monk known as Āraddhavipassaka-Tissa who developed insight and attained Arahantship after a slave-girl’s song about mortality, heard just as he watched a lotus open at sunrise, struck him with the truth of impermanence.

An uncle of Paṇḍukābhaya who administered the Sri Lankan kingdom after his elder brother Abhaya relinquished the government, and was eventually killed by Paṇḍukābhaya.

A king of Kalyāṇi and father of Vihāradevī who, suspecting an innocent Arahant of an affair involving his queen, had him executed, provoking the sea to flood the land until the king’s own daughter was sent out in a golden boat to appease it.

A minister who remained loyal to Duṭṭhagāmaṇī during his flight from Saddhā Tissa, giving him his own food, which was in turn offered to a monk.

A thera of Piyaṅgudīpa who accepted the meal offered by Duṭṭhagāmaṇī while the king was fleeing from his brother.

A brahmin youth of Rohaṇa who rose against King Vaṭṭagāmaṇī, was urged instead to fight the invading Damiḷā, and was defeated by them.

A learned monk of Hambugallaka who helped reconcile King Vaṭṭagāmaṇī with his discontented ministers and was later given several monasteries built by them.

A minister of King Vaṭṭagāmaṇī who built the Uttaratissārāma monastery.

A son of Mahācūḷa and king of Sri Lanka, poisoned by his own wife, Queen Anulā.

A paramour of Queen Anulā, originally a wood-carrier, who reigned briefly, built a bathing reservoir, and was likewise poisoned by her.

A monk of the Dakkhiṇārāma for whom King Mahāsena built the Jetavana monastery.

A younger son of King Mahādāṭhika-Mahānāga, known as Kanirajānu Tissa, and brother of King Āmaṇḍagāmaṇī-Abhaya.

A nephew of King Khallātanāga who, together with his brothers, conspired to kill the king and, when the plot failed, committed suicide.

A blacksmith and a former incarnation of Sāliya, whose gift of boar’s meat as alms was miraculously accepted by eight named elders who appeared to receive it.

A monk of Lonagiri whose bowl of milk-rice miraculously fed fifty hungry pilgrim monks after he began practising the Six Principles of Cordiality, and who later obtained two coveted shawls at a festival despite the king’s attempt to prevent it.

Known as Kuṭumbiyaputta-Tissa, a thera who renounced vast wealth for forest life and, when hired ruffians came to kill him at his sister-in-law’s bidding, broke his own thigh bone to prove he would not flee, attaining Arahantship overnight through his endurance of the pain.

A thera of Sāketa who, shamed by the challenge ‘can you find time to die?’ after refusing to answer questions for lack of time, went on to teach monks of every level with great fervour during a rains retreat.

A monk of Koṭapabbata.

A king’s confidant mentioned in the scholiast to the Kaṇha Jātaka, who in a fit of rage killed his wife and his entire retinue before finally killing himself.

A novice of Pañcaggalalena who lost his power of flight through the air after being captivated by the singing of a blacksmith’s daughter emerging from her bath.

A novice of the Tissa-Mahāvihāra who, distressed by his distaste for monastic life, built himself a cave at Cittalapabbata with great effort, attained Arahantship there in the night, and died the following day; a stupa was later raised over his relics.

An attendant of King Saddhā Tissa who, tested by a threat of execution, refused to kill pheasants for the royal table, satisfying the king of his integrity before obtaining already-dead birds from a fowler instead.

A novice of the Tissa monastery in Mahāgāma, connected with the story of Kuṇḍalā.

A novice who, after death, became a tree-deity near the Nāgamahāvihāra.

A monk who, when his brother’s wife sent men to kill him, broke his own thigh bones to prove he would not run away and, after being granted one night’s reprieve, attained Arahantship.

The seventeenth of the twenty-four Buddhas preceding Gotama, born in Khemaka, who attained Buddhahood under an asana tree and whose chief disciples were Brahmadeva and Udaya.

One of the chief female disciples of the Buddha Koṇḍañña.

An Arahant nun of a Sakyan family of Kapilavatthu who, after serving as a lady of the Bodhisatta’s court, renounced the world with Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī and attained Arahantship on hearing a verse spoken by the Buddha in a ray of glory.

An Arahant nun whose story closely parallels that of the preceding Tissā.

A female lay disciple listed, together with her mother Tissāyamātā, among a group of pious women devotees.

A rival of Mattā, whose story is told under that name.

A nun of Sri Lanka noted for her expertise in the Vinaya.

A daughter of Kittaggabodhi who married Mahinda, brother of King Sena II, and whose own daughter was also named Saṅghā.

A daughter of King Kassapa IV who became queen of Udaya II.

A daughter of the man who became Kassapa V and wife of King Kassapa IV.

The wife of Muṇḍagutta who, wishing to give alms, sold their son to buy a cow whose rich ghee provoked a minister’s jealousy, until the king, learning the truth, rewarded the couple and punished the minister.