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Khujjasobhita Thera

1. Khujjasobhita Thera.– An Arahant. He was a brahmin of Pāṭaliputta. He entered the Order under Ānanda, after the Buddha’s death, and in due course won Arahantship. At the First Council held in the Sattapaṇṇiguha, he was sent to bring Ānanda to the Assembly. He travelled through the earth, gave the message to Ānanda, and returning through the air announced his arrival to the Saṅgha, through the medium-ship of a devatā who had been placed at the door of the cave to ward off Māra and his followers. Sobhita was called “Khujja” because he was slightly hunchbacked.

In the time of Padumuttara he saw the Buddha passing with a large assembly of monks and praised him in ten stanzas (Thag.234‑6; ThagA.i.350 f).

He is probably identical with Sayaṃpaṭibhāniya of the Apadāna. Ap.ii.410 f.

2. Khujjasobhita Thera.– One of the Pācīnaka (“Eastern”) monks who proclaimed the ten indulgences at Vesāli. He was one of their representatives on the Committee of the Saṅgha appointed to settle the dispute between the monks of Vesāli and the orthodox monks (Vin.ii.305; Dpv.iv.44; v.25, 80).

According to the Mahāvaṃsa (iv.57; this passage is also found in the Samantapāsādikā i.34) this Khujjasobhita was a disciple of Ānanda and, therefore, to be identified with Khujjasobhita (1). The latter was, however, an Arahant, and therefore not likely to side with the Vesāli heretics. The identification is evidently incorrect also on other grounds, among them that of age.