Pītimalla, °mallaka, °mallaka
An elder. Having won the flags of three countries, he went on a visit to Sri Lanka and was honoured by the king. While passing the door of the Kiñjakāsanasālā, he heard a monk reciting the “Na tumhāka” Vagga, and, touched thereby, he went to the Mahāvihāra and joined the Order. Having learnt the two Mātikā, he went with thirty others to Gavaravāliya aṅgana, and there practised meditation while walking up and down. When his legs ached he walked about on his knees.
One day a hunter, mistaking him for an animal, shot at him. The dart pierced him, but he filled the wound with herbs, lay down on a slab of rock, developed insight and attained Arahantship. To the monks who gathered round him he expressed his great joy at having succeeded in his quest, and they said that had the Buddha been alive he would have stroked his head (MA.i.190).
His story is given as an example of a monk striving amid great discomfort. e.g., AA.i.29; SA.ii.216.