Kaundinya also known as
Ajnata Kaundinya was a
Buddhist bhikkhu in the
sangha of
Gautama Buddha and the first to become an
arahant. He lived during 6th century BCE in what is now
Uttar Pradesh and
Bihar,
India. Kaundinya was a brahmin who first came to prominence as a youth due to his mastery of the
vedas and was later appointed as a royal court scholar of King
Suddhodana of the Sakyas in
Kapilavastu. There Kaundinya was the only scholar who unequivocally predicted upon the birth of Prince Siddhartha that the prince would become an enlightened
Buddha, and vowed to become his disciple. Kaundinya and four colleagues followed Siddhartha in six years of ascetic practice, but abandoned him in disgust after Siddhartha gave up the practice of self mortification. Upon enlightenment, Siddartha gave his first
dharma talk to Kaundinya's group. Kaundinya was the first to comprehend the teaching and thus became the first
bhikkhu and
arahant. Kaundinya was regarded as the foremost of the five initial disciples of the Buddha and later travelled around India spreading the dharma. Among his notable converts was his nephew
Punna, whom the Buddha acknowledged as the foremost preacher of the dharma. In his final years, he retreated to the
Himalayas and predeceased the Buddha.