A Paribbájaka. He was a great debater who wandered from place to place, carrying a jambu branch, which he set up where he stopped, challenging anyone, who wished to engage him in disputation, to dislodge it. When he came to Sávatthi, Sáriputta, seeing the branch, ordered its removal. Pasúra, followed by a large crowd, went to Sáriputta's lodgings and had a discussion with him, in which he suffered defeat (cf. Patácárá). Later, he joined the Order under Láludáyí, whom he defeated in discussion, and having returned in his monk's robes to the dwelling of the heretics, he started off in these same robes to visit the Buddha and hold a discussion with him. But as he entered Jetavana, the deity presiding over the gate made him dumb, and he had to sit before the Buddha, unable to utter a single word in answer to his questions. The Buddha thereupon preached the Pasúra Sutta (see below) before the assembled people. SNA.ii.538ff.
The eighth sutta of the Atthaka Vagga of the Sutta Nipáta. Preached to Pasúra at Jetavana. Disputants quarrel with each other and call each other fools; they wish for praise and, failing to get it, become discontented. No one is purified by dispute (SN.vs.824, 834). This sutta is commented on in the Mahá Niddesa (pp. 161ff).