Question

who was vacchagotta?

Answer 1

An ascetic (parivrājaka) whose conversations with the Buddha are mentioned several times in the Pāli Canon. It was he who posed the famous ‘undetermined’ questions (Skt., avyākṛta-vastu) in the Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta of the Majjhima Nikāya to which the Buddha responded with silence. The questions related to matters such as whether or not the world was eternal and whether the Tathāgata existed after death. Vacchagotta eventually sought ordination from the Buddha at Rājagṛha and became an Arhat.