1. Khujjasobhita Thera.-An arahant. He was a brahmin of Pātaliputta. He entered the Order under Ananda, after the Buddha's death, and in due course won arahantship. At the First Council held in the Sattapanni Cave, he was sent to bring Ananda to the Assembly. He travelled through the earth, gave the message to Ananda, and returning through the air announced his arrival to the Sangha, through the medium-ship of a devatā who had been placed at the door of the cave to ward off Māra and his followers. Sobhita was called "Khujja" because he was slightly hunchbacked.
In the time of Padumuttara he saw the Buddha passing with a large assembly of monks and praised him in ten stanzas (Thag.234-6; ThagA.i.350f).
He is probably identical with Sayampatibhāniya of the Apadāna. Ap.ii.410f.
2. Khujjasobhita Thera.-One of the Pācīnaka ("Eastern") monks who proclaimed the ten indulgences at Vesāli. He was one of their representatives on the Committee of the Sangha appointed to settle the dispute between the monks of Vesāli and the orthodox monks (Vin.ii.305; Dpv.iv.44; v.25, 80).
According to the Mahāvamsa (iv.57; this passage is also found in the Samantapāsādikā i.34) this Khujjasobhita was a disciple of Ananda and, therefore, to be identified with Khujjasobhita (1). The latter was, how-ever, an arahant, and therefore not likely to side with the Vesāli heretics. The identification is evidently incorrect also on other grounds, among them that of age.