The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c18.51

v1.c18.51

The last of the Nandas was dethroned by Chandragupta, the founder of the Maurya dynasty, with the aid of the great statesman, Chāṇakya, within a few years of the departure of Alexander the Great from India. The Jains put the date of Chandragupta's accession in 313 (312) B.C., that is to say, eight years later than the Buddhists. This date coincides probably with a year which marks an epoch in the history of the Jain church. Sudharman, the first pontiff, had died twenty years after his master, leaving the mitre to Jambu, who held his high office for 44 years, dying at a time nearly coincident with the accession of the Nandas. After him passed three generations of pontiffs; and, in the time of the last Nanda, the Jain church was governed by two high-priests, Sambhūtavijaya and Bhadrabāhu, the author of the biography of Mahāvīra quoted above. These two were the last who knew perfectly the fourteen *pūrvas* or divisions of the most ancient Jain scriptures; and Sambhūtavijaya is said to have died in the same year in which Chandragupta took possession of the throne. At the same time a dreadful famine lasting for twelve years devastated the region of Bengal; and Bhadrabāhu, seeing that this evil time would provoke numerous offences against the ecclesiastical rules, thought it prudent to escape. Gathering his followers together, therefore, he emigrated, and took up his abode in the country of Karnāṭa in Southern India. The whole community, however, did not follow him. Many Jains remained in Magadha and other places under the spiritual leadership of Sthūlabhadra, a disciple of Sambhūtavijaya.