Bhallika is the second of the merchant brothers who became the Buddha's first lay followers and carried away the eight hairs he gave them. Named always beside Tapussa, he shares in the alms-offering that opened the lay Buddhist community and in the legend that brings the relics to the Shwedagon in King Okkalapa's reign. A separate tradition holds that Bhallika later renounced the world and became a monk, while Tapussa remained a lay devotee.