He belonged to a clansman's family of Magadha, and, because of his predisposition to renunciation, left domestic life and joined sectarian ascetics. Dissatisfied with them and seeing the happiness enjoyed by Upatissa, Kolita, Sela and others, after they had joined the Order, he too became a monk under the Buddha, winning the favour of his teachers. He went into solitude with an exercise for meditation, and soon afterwards attained arahantship.
In the time of Kassapa Buddha he belonged to a very rich family of Benares, and, after hearing the Buddha preach, rubbed the Buddha's Gandhakuti eight times a month with the four kinds of perfumes. As a result of this, he was born, in all his births, with a fragrant body (Thag.vss.320-4; ThagA.i.405f).
He is probably identical with Cūlasugandha of the Apadāna. Ap.ii.508f; but see ThagA.i.80 and Ap.ii.459.