1. Sugandha Thera. He belonged to a rich family of Sávatthi. In the past he had smeared the Gandhakuti of Kassapa Buddha with costly sandalwood paste and had desired that he might be reborn with a fragrant body: therefore he, on the day of his birth, and his mother, while she carried him, filled the house with fragrance hence his name. When he grew up, he heard Mahásela Thera preach and entered the Order, attaining arahantship in seven days.
In the time of Tissa Buddha he was a hunter. Tissa Buddha saw him, and, out of compassion for him, left his footprint where the hunter might see it. The hunter recognized the footprint as that of a Great Being and offered to it karandaka flowers (Thag.vs.24; ThagA.i.80f).
He is probably identical with Karandapupphiya Thera of the Apadána. Ap.ii.434; the same verses occur at Ap.ii.383; cf. ThagA.i.270; i.405, where they are found under Subhúti.
Sugandha. A khattiya of thirty one kappas ago, a former birth of Atuma (Gandhodakiya) Thera. ThagA.i.162; Ap.i.158.
3. Sugandha Thera. In the past he had been a setthiputta of Benares and had joined the Order under Kassapa Buddha, becoming famous as a preacher. After death he was born in Tusita, and in this life was born among men, with a fragrant body hence his name. He entered the Order and became an arahant. Ap.ii.459-63.