A thera of a market town (nigama) near Sāvatthi. He had the reputation of being contented, purged and pure; he went for his alms only in the village of his kinsmen. When it was reported to the Buddha that Tissa lived in intimate association with his relations, the Buddha questioned him and accepted his explanation, praising him, and remarking that Tissa's good qualities were the result of association with himself; he then related the Mahāsuka Jātaka. DhA.i.283 6. The introductory story of the Jātaka (q.v.), however, gives a different reason for its recital (J.ii.490f.).