An arahant. He recited the kammavácá (or ecclesiastical act) at the ordination of Mahinda, on whom he later conferred the upasampadá ordination (Mhv.v.207; Sp.i.51; Dpv.vii.24). Later, at the conclusion of the Third Council, Majjhantika went as preacher to Kasmíra Gandhára. There, by his great iddhi powers, he overcame the Nága king Aravála and converted him to the Faith, while Pandaka and his wife Háritá and their five hundred sons became sotápannas. Majjhantika preached the Ásívisopama Sutta to the assembled concourse and later ordained one hundred thousand persons (Mhv.xii.3, 9ff.; Sp.i.64ff.; Dpv.viii.4; Mbv.113; for the Tibetan version see Rockhill, op. cit., 167ff.). The sermon preached by Majjhantika is referred to in the Scholiast to the Sarabhanga Játaka (J.v.142).
This same Elder is referred to elsewhere as an example of one who practised pariyatti appicchatá (SNA.ii.494; DA.iii.1061, but at AA.i.263 he is called Majjhantika Tissa). He was the leader of the assembly of monks (sanghathera). On the day of the dedication of Asoka’s vihára, the Thera was a khínásava and was present, but his begging bowl and robe were hardly worth a farthing. People, seeing him there, asked him to make way; but he sank into the earth, rising to receive the alms given to the leader of the monks, knowing that he alone was fit to accept it. The story is given at AA.i.43; MA.i.350.