Personalities of the Buddhist Suttas
Having mastered six dhammas, bhikkhus, the housefather Vajiyamahita,
coming to perfection under the Tathāgata,
has positioned himself
as an eye-witness seer of the deathless.
AN 6.147 -Olds
Vajjiyamāhita
Dictionary of Pāḷi Proper Names: A householder of Campā, a devout and skilled follower of the Buddha. Once, when on his way to see the Buddha at Gagarā Lake, he found he had arrived too early and went into the Paribbājakārāma near by. The Paribbājakas asked him if it was true that the Buddha ridiculed all forms of asceticism and austerity. They spoke of the Buddha as a teacher of a discipline which he himself did not follow, a nihilist (venayika) and a visionary (? appaññattika). Vajjiyamājhita refuted their arguments, maintaining that the Buddha declared what was good and what was bad, and that the truth of his teachings could be proved. Having thus silenced them, he sought the Buddha, to whom he repeated the conversation. The Buddha praised him, and said it was untrue that he discouraged all austerity and asceticism; such penances as led to the destructin of evil states and the promotion of good states, he welcomed and encouraged. When Vajjiyamāhita had left him, the Buddha held him up to the monks as an example of a good householder, capble of profitable discussion with followers of other persuasions.
References:
Dictionary of Pāḷi Proper Names, by G. P. Malalasekera, D.Litt., Ph.D., M.A. (Lond.), O.B.E., Pāḷi Text Society, 1974
AN 10.94
AN 10.81
AN 6.147 -Olds