Tissa

Page last updated on 8 October, 2020

Tissa

1. See Tissa Buddha ¹

2. Tissa.– The ninth future Buddha. See Anāgatavaṃsa.²

3. Tissa.– One of the two chief disciples of Vipassī Buddha.³ He was the son of the chief priest (purohita) Bandhumatī, and the Buddha’s first discourse was taught to him and Khanda.⁴

4. Tissa.– One of the two chief disciples of Dīpaṅkara Buddha.⁵

5. Tissa.– A leading disciple (aggasāvaka) of Kassapa Buddha. He was the Buddha’s brother and, having renounced the household, became an ascetic. On hearing that Kassapa had become Buddha, he visited him but expressed great disappointment on discovering that he ate flesh, which smelt bad (āmagandha). The Buddha taught him that the bad smalle (āmagandha) was not flesh, but the mental defilements (kilesa) that corrupt the heart, and he taught him the Āmagandha Sutta. Tissa immediately entered the Order and became a leading disciple.⁶ Tissa’s father was born as Subhadda in this age.⁷

6. Tissa.– A monk who was reborn as a Brahmā with great psychic powers. Mahā-Moggallāna visited him soon after his birth in the Brahma-world and asked him questions about devas and Brahmas who were assured of salvation.⁸ He was evidently the Tissa mentioned as being present at the Mahāsamaya.⁹

7. Tissa.– A friend of Metteyya. They together visited the Buddha at Jetavana and, having listened to his teaching, entered the Order. Metteyya retired with his teacher into the forest and not long after became an Arahant. Tissa lived in Sāvatthi and when his elder brother died, he went home and was persuaded by his relations to return to the lay life. Later, Metteyya, passing through the village with the Buddha, during a journey, visited Tissa and brought him once more to the Buddha. The Buddha taught them the Tissametteyya Sutta, at the end of which Tissa became a Stream-winner, later attaining Arahantship.¹⁰

8. Tissa.– The personal name of Metteyya, friend of Tissa (7). Metteyya was his clan name by which he became known.¹¹ In the Suttanipāta ¹² he is called Tissa-Metteyya.

9. Tissa-Metteyya.– A disciple of Bāvarī. He visited the Buddha with his colleagues and when the Buddha answered his questions, he, and his thousand pupils became Arahants. Tissa was his personal name and Metteyya that of his clan.¹³

10. Tissa.– An elder of Sāvatthi. He once received a length of coarse cloth as a gift and handed it to his sister to be made into a robe. She had the cloth pounded and spun into fine yarn and made of it a soft robe-cloth. At first Tissa would not accept it but was prevailed upon to do so and had it made into a soft robe by skilled robe-makers. He died on the night it was finished and, as a result of his fancy for it, was reborn as a louse in the robe. After his death, the monks wished to divide the robe but the louse started shouting. The Buddha, hearing this by his power of divine audience, asked the monks to lay the robe aside for seven days. At the end of that period, the louse was reborn in the Tusita world.¹⁴

11. Tissa.– A monk. When the Buddha declared that in four months he would pass away, many monks were greatly excited, collecting in groups, not knowing what to do. However, Tissa remained aloof, determined to win Arahantship before the Buddha’s death. The others, misunderstanding him, reported to the Buddha that Tissa had no love for him, but the Buddha, having questioned him, praised his earnestness.¹⁵

12. Tissa Thera.– An Arahant. He belonged to a brahmin family of Rājagaha and, having attained great proficiency in the Vedas, became a teacher of five hundred young men. When the Buddha visited Rājagaha, Tissa was so struck by his majesty that he joined the Order, later winning Arahantship. The Theragāthā contains verses uttered by him regarding certain monks who were jealous of his great renown.

In the time of Piyadassī Buddha, Tissa was an ascetic. Seeing the Buddha absorbed in concentration (samādhi) in a forest-grove, he built over him an arbour of silo flowers and for seven days paid him homage.¹⁶

He is evidently identical with Saḷalamaṇḍapiya of the Apadāna.¹⁷

13. Tissa.– A rājā of Roruva. He was an “unseen” ally of Bimbisāra and, as such, sent him various gifts. The king sent him in return a painted panel on which was depicted the life of the Buddha and a gold plate specially inscribed with the Law of Dependent Origination (paṭiccasamuppāda). On seeing these, Tissa’s mind was filled with agitation and, giving up his title, he came to Rājagaha as a monk and lived in the Sappasoṇḍika cave, from there visiting the Buddha, and soon afterwards becoming an Arahant.

In the time of Vipassī Buddha he was a chariot-maker and gave the Buddha a stool made of sandalwood. Fifty-seven world-cycles ago he was four times king under the name of Santa (Bhavanimmita).¹⁸ He is probably identical with Phalakadāyaka of the Apadāna.¹⁹

14. Tissa Thera.– An Arahant. Son of the Buddha’s paternal aunt, Amitā. He entered the Order and dwelt in a woodland settlement, but he was proud of his rank and irritable and captious in his conduct. He once came to the Buddha in tears because his colleagues had teased him on account of his talkativeness.²⁰ On another occasion, the Buddha, with his celestial eye, saw Tissa sleeping with open mouth during the siesta and, sending a ray of glory, woke him. Tissa’s heart was filled with anguish and when he confessed to his colleagues his mental laziness and distaste for religion, they brought him to the Buddha. The Buddha taught him the Tissa Sutta, at the end of which he became an Arahant.²¹

In the time of Tissa Buddha he swept the leaves from the foot of the Bodhi-tree. He is evidently identical with Bodhisammajjaka of the Apadāna.²²

The Dhammapada Commentary ²³ says that he was fat (thūlasarīro). He entered the Order when old and became fat through idleness. He spent most of his time in the Waiting-hall draped in rich robes. Monks, taking him for a Mahāthera, begged the privilege of performing various services for him, such as massaging his feet. However, when they discovered his attainments, they reviled him and he sought the Buddha. The Buddha, however, asked him to obtain their pardon for having failed to show them due honour, and when he refused, related to him the story of Nārada and Devala.

15. Tissa.– A novice. He was a gatekeeper’s son and, coming with some carpenters to Sāvatthi, joined the Order. He was constantly finding fault with the food and other offerings, even those given by Anāthapiṇḍika, and he boasted of the riches enjoyed by his kinsfolk. His colleagues made enquiries and, discovering the truth about his antecedents, reported him to the Buddha who taught the Kaṭāhaka Jātaka (q.v.) to show his similar tendencies in the past.²⁴ Tissa was identified with Kaṭāhaka of the Jātaka.²⁵

16. Tissa.– A monk. He was called Kosambivāsī Tissa. He spent the rainy season at Kosambī and, on his departure, his supporter gave him three robes and other offerings; he, however, refused them saying that he had no novice to look after them. The layman immediately gave his son, then seven years old, to be his novice. The boy attained Arahantship in the Tonsure-hall. While on his way to Sāvatthi to see the Buddha, Tissa accidentally blinded the novice by hitting his eye with a fan at dawn. The elder was filled with remorse and, falling at the boy’s feet, asked his pardon. However, the answer was that there was no fault to pardon, the accident was due to saṃsāra. When the matter was reported to the Buddha he said that such was the nature of Arahants. They felt no resentment. At the end of the discourse, Tissa became an Arahant.²⁶

17. Tissa.– A monk, called Asubhakammika-Tissa. He is mentioned in the Commentaries ²⁷ as an example of a good friend, devoted to the contemplation of repulsiveness (asubha), association with whom helps one to get rid of lust. His teacher was Mahātissa of Koṭapabbata-vihāra.²⁸

18. Tissa.– A master of writing (lekhācariya). Even after his death he was known by reason of his writing.²⁹

19. Tissa.– One of the chief lay patrons of Padumuttara Buddha.³⁰

20. Tissa.– A monk known as Āraddhavipassaka-Tissa. While walking about he saw a lotus open at the rising of the sun. Immediately afterwards, he heard a slave-girl singing; her song told of how men are subject to death just as the lotus opens to the sun. Tissa thereupon developed insight and became an Arahant.³¹

21. Tissa.– Uncle of Paṇḍukābhaya. He administered the kingdom when his elder brother, Abhaya, gave up the government. He was killed by Paṇḍukābhaya.³²

22. Tissa-Kontiputta.– An elder of Asoka’s time, a disciple of Mahāvaruṇa and brother of Sumitta. He was the son of a kinnarī called Kuntī. He died of a bite by a venomous insect. Asoka was grieved on learning that Tissa’s death was due to his failure to obtain ghee in his illness.³³

23. Tissa-kumāra.– Brother of Asoka and his vice-regent. He once asked Asoka why monks were not joyful and gay and Asoka, in order to teach him the reason, gave him the throne for a week, saying that at the end of the week he would be put to death. Tissa then realised that monks, who had the constant consciousness of death, could not be merry.

He later became a monk under Yonaka Dhammarakkhita and lived in the Asokārāma, where he prevented the murder of the elders by the minister sent by Asoka to make the monks hold the uposatha together. He became an Arahant and, on account of his love of solitude, came to be known as Ekavihāriya.³⁴

24. Tissa.– King of Kalyāṇi and father of Vihāradevī.³⁵ His brother Ayya-Uttiya entered into an intrigue with the queen and was banished. He sent the queen a letter through an attendant to an Arahant who was in the habit of visiting the palace. This letter fell into the hands of the king who suspected the Arahant himself, owing to a similarity in his writing to that of the intriguer. The king ordered the Arahant to be killed and cast into the sea. The devas, being offended, caused the sea to overflow the land. The total destruction of the country was only averted by the king sending his daughter Devī (afterwards Vihāradevī), to sea in a golden boat. The Rasavāhinī, however, says he was thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil; see Telakatāha-gāthā.

Tissa’s father was Muṭasīva and his grandfather Uttiya.³⁶

25. Tissa.– A minister of Duṭṭhagāmaṇī. When the latter fled from Saddhā Tissa, Tissa joined him and he gave him his own food during the flight. However, the food was ultimately given to a monk (see Tissa 26) who accepted their invitation to the meal.³⁷ It was probably the mother of this Tissa who, we are told,³⁸ used a cloth worth one hundred to wipe away the impurities of her son’s birth, which cloth she afterwards threw out on to the Tālavelimagga hoping that it might prove useful to a rag-robe wearing monk (pāṃsukūlika).

26. Tissa.– A thera in Piyaṅgudīpa. He it was who accepted the meal given by Duṭṭhagāmaṇī while fleeing from his brother.³⁹

27. Tissa.– A brahmin youth of Rohaṇa who rebelled against Vaṭṭagāmaṇī in the fifth year of his reign. At that time Damiḷā invaded Sri Lanka and Vaṭṭagāmaṇī sent word to Tissa asking him to fight them, and take the throne for himself; Tissa did, but was conquered by them.⁴⁰

See also Brāhmaṇatissa-cora.

28. Tissa.– A monk of Hambugallaka. He was very learned and helped to reconcile Vaṭṭagāmaṇī and his discontented ministers.⁴¹ Later, the ministers built several vihāras — the Mūlavokāsa, the Sāliyārāma, the Pabbatārāma, and the Uttaratissārāma — and handed them over to Tissa.⁴²

29. Tissa.– A minister of Vaṭṭagāmaṇī he built the Uttaratissārāma.⁴³

30. Tissa.– Son of Mahācūḷa and king of Sri Lanka (9‑12 A.D.). He was poisoned by his wife Anulā.⁴⁴

31. Tissa.– A paramour of Queen Anulā. He was a wood-carrier and was therefore called Dārubhatika-Tissa. He reigned for one year and one month and built a bathing-reservoir in the Mahāmeghavana. He was poisoned by Anulā.⁴⁵

32. Tissa.– A monk of the Dakkhiṇārāma, for whom Mahāsena built the Jetavana-vihāra.⁴⁶

33. Tissa.– Younger son of Mahādāṭhika-Mahānāga and brother of Āmaṇḍagāmaṇī-Abhaya. He was known as Kanirajānu Tissa.⁴⁷

34. Tissa.– Nephew of Khallātanāga and son of Sumanadevī, step-sister to the king. With his brothers, Abhaya and Uttara, he conspired to kill the king. However, the conspiracy failed and they committed suicide.⁴⁸

35. Tissa.– A blacksmith (kammāraputta), a previous incarnation of Sāliya. He lived in Muṇḍagaṅgā and receiving one day as wages the flesh of a boar, he had it cooked by his wife. When the meal was ready he announced alms; the elders Dhammadinna, Godhika-Mahātissa, Mahānāga of Samudda-vihāra, Mahānāga of Kālavallimaṇḍapa, Mahāsaṅgharakkhita, Dhammagutta, Mahānāga of Bhātiyavanka and Maliyamahādeva appeared to accept the alms.⁴⁹

36. Tissa.– A monk resident in Lonagiri (Lenagiri). He once saw fifty monks, on their way to Nāgadipa on a pilgrimage, returning from their alms-rounds in Mahākhīragāma, with their bowls empty. Asking them to wait, he returned in a little while with his bowl of milk-rice which proved more than enough for the whole company. Seeing their astonishment, he explained that since he had begun to practise the Six Practices Evoking Friendship (sāraṇīyā-dhammā), his bowl had never lacked food.

At the Giribhandamahāpūjā at Cetiyapabbata, Tissa wished to have for himself two shawls, the most precious things there. He declared his wish in the presence of others and the king, on being informed, determined that Tissa should not have them, but every time he put out his hand to take the robes, they slipped away, and others took their place. In the end the robes were given to Tissa.⁵⁰

37. Tissa.– A Thera of Sāvatthi, better known as Kuṭumbiyaputta-Tissa. He renounced four hundred million of wealth and became a monk dwelling in the forest. His younger brother’s wife sent five hundred ruffians to kill him. He begged them to spare his life for one night and broke his thigh-bone with a stone as proof that he would not attempt to escape. During the night he overcame his pain and, dwelling on his virtues, became an Arahant.⁵¹

38. Tissa.– A Thera of Sāketa. He refused to answer questions, saying that he had no time. On being asked, “Can you find time to die?” he felt ashamed, and going to the Kanikāravālikasamudda-vihāra, instructed monks of varying grades during the rainy season, rousing great enthusiasm among the populace by his teaching.⁵²

39. Tissa.– A monk of Koṭapabbata.

40. Tissa.– A minister. The scholiast to the Kaṇha Jātaka mentions a story of an king’s confidant (amacca) called Tissa who, in a rage, killed his wife and all his retinue and, finally, himself.⁵³

41. Tissa.– A novice of Pañcaggalalena. While travelling through the air he heard the daughter of the blacksmith of Girigāma singing, after having bathed with her companions in a lotus-pond. Being attracted by the sound, he lost his power of travelling through the air.⁵⁴

42. Tissa.– A novice of Tissa-Mahāvihāra. He complained to his teacher of his distaste for the Order and the latter took him to Cittalapabbata. There, with great effort, Tissa built for himself a cave and while lying there during the night, became an Arahant, dying the next day. A thūpa called the Tissa-thera-cetiya was erected over his relics and this was still in existence in Buddhaghosa’s day.⁵⁵

43. Tissa.– An attendant of King Saddhā Tissa. The king, wishing to eat pheasants, asked Tissa to procure some, having first tested him by threatening to have him executed if he refused to kill fowl for the king’s table. Tissa, even when led to the executioner’s block, refused to kill the birds. The king was thus satisfied that Tissa would not kill pheasants for him. The next day, Tissa, seeing a fowler hawking some dead pheasants, obtained them for the king.⁵⁶

44. Tissa.– A novice (sāmaṇera) of Tissa-vihāra in Mahāgāma.

See Kuṇḍalā.

45. Tissa.– A novice who later became a devaputta on a tree near Nāgamahāvihāra.⁵⁷

46. Tissa.– A monk who, when his brother’s wife sent men to kill him, broke his thigh bones to prove that he would not run away, and having begged leave for one night, attained Arahantship.⁵⁸

Footnotes

¹ Note moved; J.i.40. ² p.40. ³ Bu.xx.28; J.i.41; D.ii.4. ⁴ BuA.196.

⁵ Bu.ii.213; J.i.29; Mbv.5. ⁶ Bu.xxv.39; SNA.i.280‑2, 293; D.ii.4.

⁷ Ap.i.101. ⁸ A.iii.331; iv.75 ﬀ. ⁹ D.ii.261; DA.ii.692.

¹⁰ SN. p.160 f; SNA.ii.535 f, NidA.184. ¹¹ SNA.ii.536; NidA.184. ¹² vs.814.

¹³ SN., vs.1040‑2; SNA.ii.588. ¹⁴ DhA.iii.341 ﬀ. ¹⁵ DhA.iii.267 f.

¹⁶ Thag.vv.153‑4; ThagA.i.272 f. ¹⁷ Ap.ii.431 f. ¹⁸ Thag.97; ThagA.i.199 f.

¹⁹ Ap.i.174. ²⁰ S.ii.282; MA.i.289.

²¹ Thag.v.39; but see v.1162; S.iii.106 f; ThagA.i.105.

²² Ap.ii.457 f. ²³ DhA.i.37 ﬀ. ²⁴ DhA.iii.367. ²⁵ J.i.455. ²⁶ DhA.ii.182 ﬀ.

²⁷ VibhA.270. ²⁸ MT.553. ²⁹ Mil., p.70; see J.R.A.S.xii.159.

³⁰ Bu.xi.26. ³¹ SNA.ii.397. ³² Mhv.x.51, 70. ³³ Mhv.v.213 ﬀ.

³⁴ Thag.vv.537‑46; ThagA.i.503 f; Mhv.v.33, 60, 154 ﬀ, 241; SA.iii.125.

³⁵ Mhv.xxii.13 ﬀ. ³⁶ MT.431. ³⁷ For details see Mhv.xxiv.22 ﬀ; AA.i.365.

³⁸ Vism., p.63. ³⁹ Mhv.xxiv.25. ⁴⁰ Mhv.xxxiii.38 ﬀ. ⁴¹ Mhv.xxxiii.71, 75

⁴² Ibid., 91. ⁴³ Mhv.xxxiii.91. ⁴⁴ Mhv.xxxiv.15 ﬀ. ⁴⁵ Mhv.xxxiv.22 ﬀ.

⁴⁶ Mhv.xxxvii.32, 38. ⁴⁷ Mhv.xxxv.11 ﬀ; MT.640. ⁴⁸ MT.612. ⁴⁹ MT.605 f.

⁵⁰ DA.ii.534 f; MA.i.545. ⁵¹ MA.i.188 f; DA.iii.747; Vism.48.

⁵² MA.i.350 f; DA.iii.1061. ⁵³ J.iv.11. ⁵⁴ MA.i.353; SNA.i.70. ⁵⁵ MA.i.312 f.

⁵⁶ SA.iii.49 ﬀ; AA.i.262. ⁵⁷ For details see Ras.ii.168. ⁵⁸ MA.i.188 f.

Finding Footnote References

References in the notes are to the Pāḷi texts of the PTS. In the translations, these are usually printed in the headers near the spine, or in square brackets in the body of the text, thus it would be i 37 in the spine or [37] in the text. References to the Commentaries are usually suffixed with A for Aṭṭhakathā (DA, MA, SNA, etc.) but references to the Jātaka Commentary are given as J, not JA, which would normally be used, as that is reserved for the Journal Asiatic.