1. Dhammika Thera.-A brahmin of Kosala who was converted at the presentation of Jetavana and entered a village vihāra. As he became irritated when monks visited the vihāra they desisted, and he became sole master of the vihāra. When this was reported to the Buddha by a layman, the Buddha sent for him and preached to him the Rukkhadhamma Jātaka, showing that in the past, too, he had been guilty of similar conduct. Dhammika concentrated on the verses of the Jātaka and, developing insight, became an arahant.
In the time of Sikhī Buddha he had been a hunter and had listened to the Buddha preaching to an assembly of the gods in a forest.
Thag.303-6; ThagA.i.396ff. According to A.iii.366ff. Dhammika had to leave seven lodgings, one after the other, because the lay supporters of the lodgings could not tolerate his insulting ways. He therefore sought the Buddha and complained to him. The Rukkhadhamma Jātaka mentioned here is evidently not the story of the same name mentioned in the Jātaka Commentary (i.327ff.). The story is given in full in the Anguttara Nikāya (loc. cit.). There the Buddha is said to have related to him stories of several past teachers, showing the evil effects of reviling others.
He may be identical with Ghosasaññaka of the Apadāna (Ap.ii.451).
2. Dhammika.-A householder of Sāvatthi who led a very holy life. One day he felt the wish to become a monk and spoke of it to his wife, but she begged him to wait until after the birth of their child. He waited till the child was able to walk and, then spoke again to her, but she then wished him to wait until the child should be of age. To this he would not agree, but joined the Order and soon after became an arahant. Later, he visited his family and preached to his son, who became a monk and attained arahantship. His mother, left alone, joined the nuns, becoming an arahant herself. DhA.ii.157-9.
3. Dhammika.-An eminent lay disciple of Sāvatthi, a very learned man and an anāgāmī. He had five hundred followers, all anāgāmī, who, like himself, could travel through the air (SNA.i.367). He was one of those who possessed sekhapatisambhidā (Vsm.442; VibhA.388). See also Dhammika Sutta 2.
4. Dhammika.-One of the chief lay supporters of Piyadassī Buddha. Bu.xiv.22.
5. Dhammika.-King of Siam, contemporary of Kittisirirājasīha of Ceylon. He welcomed the delegation sent from Ceylon to Siam to bring back some monks, and gave it every help. On two occasions he sent groups of monks to Ceylon to re-establish ordination in that country, and the king of Ceylon, to show his gratitude, sent him a replica of the Tooth Relic and various other gifts. Cv.c.66, 136, 151, 157.
6. Dhammika.-See DhA.i.129ff. The "dhammika upāsaka" mentioned there is probably merely "a righteous lay disciple" and not an upāsaka "named Dhammika."
7. Dhammika.-Name of a jackal in the Bilāra Jātaka.