While residing at Veluvana, the Bamboo Grove Monastery in Rajagaha, the Buddha spoke these verses with reference to Sanjaya, a former teacher of the Chief Disciples, the Venerable Sariputta and the Venerable Moggallana, who were formerly known as Upatissa and Kolita.

Before the Buddha appeared in the world, there were two Brahmin villages near Rajagaha named Upatissa village and Kolita village. A Brahmin's wife named Rupasari in Upatissa village and a Brahmin's wife named Moggali in Kolita village conceived children on the same day; their two families had been bound in friendship for seven generations.

On the expiration of ten lunar months, both women gave birth to sons, who were named Upatissa and Kolita after their villages.

As they grew up, both boys attained the highest proficiency in the arts and sciences. Upatissa moved about with five hundred golden litters and Kolita with five hundred chariots, each with a retinue of five hundred boys.

At the annual Mountain-top festival in Rajagaha, the two youths shared a couch and watched the celebrations together for several days, laughing and weeping and giving alms as the occasion required.

But one day, having grown wiser, they no longer felt moved to laugh, weep, or give in the same way. Each thought, "Why should we look at this? Before a hundred years have passed, all these people will have gone hence. It behoves us rather to seek the Way of Release."

When Kolita noticed Upatissa's melancholy and asked about it, Upatissa confessed his very thought, and found that Kolita had been thinking the same. They agreed to seek the Way of Release together and retire from the world, but wondered under which teacher.

At that time, a wandering ascetic named Sanjaya entered Rajagaha with a large retinue. Upatissa and Kolita decided to become his pupils, dismissing half their retainers and retiring from the world with the rest under Sanjaya.

Sanjaya's fame grew because of them, but within a few days the two had learned all that Sanjaya knew. When they asked if there was more to his teaching, Sanjaya admitted there was not.

Since the questions the others asked, Upatissa and Kolita could always answer, while their own questions stumped everyone else, they travelled throughout the land seeking a deeper teaching, then returned home. Before parting ways for a time, they agreed that whichever of them first attained the Deathless would inform the other.

One day, the wandering ascetic Upatissa saw the Monk Assaji and, struck by his calm and serene bearing, asked under whom he had gone forth and whose doctrine he professed.

Assaji, though a mere novice, offered to share what he knew. Upatissa, hearing even a brief statement of the Buddha's teaching on causation, immediately attained the fruit of stream-entry.

Upatissa found Kolita and repeated Assaji's words to him, and Kolita too was established in the fruit of conversion. They decided to visit the Buddha and first invited their teacher Sanjaya to come with them.

Sanjaya refused, saying it would be absurd for him, who had long been a teacher of multitudes, to become a pupil again. When Upatissa urged him, Sanjaya asked which were more numerous in the world, the wise or the foolish. Told that the foolish were many, Sanjaya said, "Then let the wise go to the wise Monk Gotama, and let the foolish come to foolish me."

Upatissa and Kolita departed, and about two hundred and fifty of Sanjaya's other followers joined them. They went to the Buddha and became his chief disciples: Upatissa became Sariputta, and Kolita became Moggallana. They told the Buddha that Sanjaya had refused to come.