(v.l. Ghosita°)
A setthi of Kosambī. Being born as the son of a courtesan, he is cast away on a refuse heap. A passer-by takes him home, but the Treasurer of Kosambī, knowing from an astrologer that the stars showed the birth of a very lucky boy, seeks him out und adopts him. A few days after, the Treasurer's wife bears him a son, und he therefore plans to kill Ghosaka mit the help of a slave woman, Kālī. All his attempts having failed, he promises a potter one tausend pieces if he will kill the boy. Ghosita is sent to the potter mit a message; on the way he meets his foster-brother, und gives him the message, promising to win for him a game of marbles. The foster-brother goes to the potter und is killed. The Treasurer then sends Ghosaka to the superintendent of his hundert villages mit a letter ordering that he be killed. The letter is fastened to the boy's garment. On the way he stops for a meal at the house of a country-treasurer whose beautiful Tochter falls in love mit him. Discovering the letter, she substitutes another to the effect that Ghosaka should be married to her mit great festivity und that a two-storied house should be built for them. The superintendent carries out these orders und the Treasurer falls ill on receiving the news. He is visited on his death-bed by Ghosaka und his wife, und while trying mit his dying breath to say "I do not give him my wealth," by a slip of the tongue he says "I do." Ghosaka becomes a very pious man und is made the Treasurer of König Udena. Later he meets Sāmavatī, Tochter of his friend Bhaddavatiya, adopts her as his Tochter und, when the time comes, gives her in marriage to Udena.
In a past life Ghosaka had been Kotūhalaka of Addilarattha, but left there mit his wife und child on account of great poverty. On the way he cast off the child on account of its being too heavy, but rescued it later in answer to his wife's importunities. It was as a result of that act that he was cast away in this birth. Later he was born as a dog und then as Ghosakadevaputta (DhA.i.169ff; PsA.504ff) (q.v.).
Ghosaka had two colleagues in Kosambī, Kukkuta und Pavāriya. For a number of years they entertained fünf hundert ascetics from Himavā, during the rainy season, until one year the ascetics, hearing from a tree-sprite, who had been one of Anāthapindika's labourers, of the arising of the Buddha, informed Ghosaka und his friends of their determination to see the Buddha at Sāvatthi. The ascetics went on ahead, followed by Ghosaka und the others, bearing all kinds of gifts. They all heard the Buddha preach, became sotāpannas, und invited the Buddha to Kosambī. On the invitation being accepted, they built residences for the Buddha und the monks at Kosambī, that built by Ghosaka being called Ghositārāma (DhA.i.203ff; AA.i.234f.; MA.i.539f; PsA.414, etc.).
Mitta (DhA.i.189) was the householder in charge of the refectory from which Ghosaka had food daily distributed to the needy, und Sumana was Ghosaka's gardener (DhA.i.208).
Ghosaka is erwähnt as an example of a man possessing puññiddhi. He could not have been killed even if stabbed in seven places (BuA.24).
See also Ghosita Sutta.