Kāḷa Buddharakkhita untranslated

Kāḷa Buddharakkhita. A Thera of Ceylon, an Arahant. He belonged to a minister’s family and was born in a village near Dakkhiṇagirivihāra. When he came of age, he entered the Saṅgha, learned the whole of the Tipiṭaka, and, on going with a large concourse to see his teacher, was asked to give up his following and go into solitude to practise meditation. He went to the Vātakasitapabbatavihāra, practised meditation and became an Arahant. While living in the Cetiyapabbata vihāra, he was once worshipping at the Kaṇṭakacetiya and was seated at the foot of a Kāḷatimbara tree. (Legend says on the night of the new moon, thus completing the circle of Kāḷas). One of the monks asked him a question on the Kāḷakārāmasutta and the Elder preached a sermon based on the Sutta. King Tissa (probably Saddhātissa), who was in the vicinity, came to listen to the sermon, which lasted throughout the night; the king remained standing the whole time. Greatly pleased, the king, at the end of the sermon, offered the sovereignty of Ceylon to the monk.

It is said that the Elder had been the Nigaṇṭha Mahā Saccaka in the time of the Buddha, and that the Buddha had preached to him the Mahā Saccakasutta, not because he could understand it then, but because the Buddha knew that it would help him to rise to eminence in this last life as Kāḷa Buddharakkhita. MN­a.i.469f.