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Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c8.s1: 1. Mauryas

Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c8.s1

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1. Mauryas

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The earliest undoubted inscriptions in Mysore are the Edicts of Aśōka in the Molakālmuru tāluq (Mk 21, 14, 34), discovered by me in 1892. They belong to the first half of the third century B.C., and are unquestionable evidence that the north of the Mysore State was included in the Maurya empire. But there are inscriptions relating to a period still farther back. For the Mauryas had as their predecessors the Nandas, and one inscription (Sk 225) states that Kuntala, a province which included the western Dekhan and the north of Mysore, was ruled by the Nandas. Another (Sk 236) derives the descent of the Kadambas, the early rulers of the north-west of the country, from Nanda. But these are of comparatively modern date, the twelfth century, and need not be further noticed.

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Much more ancient and definite are the Jain inscriptions relating to Bhadrabāhu and Chandra Gupta. The first discovery of those at Śravaṇa-Beḷgoḷa was made by me in 1874. The oldest are incised on the natural and irregular horizontal surface of the rock on the summit of the lower hill, called Chandragiri. One (SB 17), of (?) about 600, which almost runs into the big one (SB 1), to be mentioned farther on, couples together "the pair (yugma), Bhadrabāhu along with Chandra Gupta munīndra," and says that theirs was the safe (or auspicious) faith (dharmma). Two inscriptions on the north bank of the Kāvērī near Seringapatam (Sr 147, 148), of about 900, describe the summit of the Kalbappu hill, that is, Chandragiri, as marked by the footprints of Bhadrabāhu and Chandra Gupta munipati. At Śravaṇa-Beḷgoḷa, one of 1129 (SB 54) mentions Bhadrabāhu—the śrutakēvali—and Chandra Gupta, who by being his disciple acquired such merit that he was for a long time served by the forest deities. Another there, of 1163 (SB 40), speaks of Bhadrabāhu, the last of the śrutakēvalis, and his disciple Chandra Gupta, whose glory was such that his gaṇa of munis was worshipped by the forest deities. A third in the same place, of 1432 (SB 108), after extolling the yatīndra Bhadrabāhu, the last of the śrutakēvalis, says that his disciple was Chandra Gupta, the greatness of whose penance caused his exalted fame to be spread into other worlds (or lands).

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In literature, the Bṛihatkathākōśa, a work by Harishēna, dated in 931, says that Bhadrabāhu, the last of the śrutakēvalis, had the king Chandra Gupta as his disciple. A similar account is contained in the Bhadrabāhu-charita by Ratnanandi of about 1450; and is repeated in the Rājāvali-kathe by Dēva-chandra, which is a modern compilation, of about 1800.

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The tradition—thus ancient in origin, and referred to in subsequent ages down to the present as well known—is that Bhadrabāhu died at Śravaṇa-Beḷgoḷa, on the Kaṭavapra or Kaḷbappu hill, that is Chandragiri, while leading a migration of Jains from the north, and that Chandra Gupta, who had accompanied him as his chief disciple, was the only attendant on him in his last moments. The latter survived his teacher for twelve years, which were spent in penance on the hill, and then died there himself.¹

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¹ “The story would be very interesting if it could be believed,” says Mr. Vincent A. Smith (EHI. 137). Unfortunately he has been entirely misled as to its being a modern invention.

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For further local testimony to the truth of this, we have Chandra-giri, the name of the hill, given to it after Chandra Gupta. On it is pointed out the cave in which Bhadrabāhu expired (SB 71). In the centre of the group of temples there, and the most ancient among them, is the Chandra Gupta basti, facing which, as being then the sole object of adoration on the hill, must be read the semicircle of rock inscriptions (SB 1-35) recording the death, by *sallēkhana* or fasting, of various distinguished Jains. The façade of this basti is a perforated stone screen containing ninety sculptured scenes of events in the lives of Bhadrabāhu and Chandra Gupta. This, however, from the name of the sculptor, may be a work of the twelfth century, and made for its protection.

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But of the rock inscriptions at Śravaṇa-Beḷgoḷa, which mostly consist of only two or three lines, the longest and most important is SB 1, in Sanskrit, not dated, but, from the characters, belonging to not later than the fifth century.¹ For they closely correspond with those of the Kavaḍi stone (Sb 523), recording the death of the Kadamba king Ravivarmma and his queen; and phrases are grouped in a similar way in both, leaving a space between. Comparison may also be made with the characters of the Siragunda stone (Cm 50), which is of the time of the Ganga king Nirvvinīta or Durvvinīta, who came to the throne in 482.

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¹ The seventh, in the opinion of Drs. Leumann (*VOJ*. vii. 382) and Fleet (*EI*. iv. 25).

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After verses in praise of Vardhamāna or Mahāvīra, whose doctrine (it says) is even to-day in favour in Viśāla (? Vaiśāli), a line of holy men is named who succeeded him. They were: Gautama gaṇadhara, his personal disciple Lōhārya, Jambu,² Vishnudēva, Aparājita, Gōvardhana, Bhadrabāhu,³ Viśākha, Prōṣṭhila, Kṛittikārya, Jayanāma, Siddhārtha, Dhṛitishēna, Buddhila,⁴ and others. Bhadrabāhu-svāmi, of this illustrious succession of regularly descended great men, by his power of knowing the past, present, and future, having foretold in Ujjayini a period of twelve years of dire calamity (or famine), the whole of the *sangha* (or Jaina community) went forth from the North to the South. By degrees they had arrived at a populous and prosperous country, when the Āchārya, Prabhā- chandra by name (or (?) with Prabhāchandra also), on this mountain named Kaṭavapra, perceiving that but little time remained for him to live, in order that he might perform the penance before death, bidding farewell to them, sent away the entire *sangha*, and with one single disciple, worshipping on the cold rocks covered with grass, gained emancipation from his body.

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² These were the three Kēvalis. The second is generally called Sudharma.

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³ These were four of the five Śrutakēvalis.

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⁴ These seven were Daśapūrvis, out of eleven.

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Now here we have the prediction by Bhadrabāhu of twelve years of famine in the North, and the migration in consequence of the Jains to the South. As Dr. Leumann says,¹ the migration to the South is "the initial fact of the Digambara tradition." After a critical examination of Jain *paṭṭāvalis* or succession lists of gurus, Dr. Hoernle says:² "Before Bhadrabāhu the Jain community was undivided; with him the Digambaras separated from the Śvētāmbaras. . . The question is who this Bhadrabāhu was. The Śvētāmbara *paṭṭāvalis* know only one Bhadrabāhu, who, from the dates assigned to him by the Śvētāmbaras and Digambaras alike, must be identical with the Bhadrabāhu I of the Digambaras. Considering the varying and contradictory character of the Digambara traditions, the probability is that the inception of the great separation took place under Bhadrabāhu I, who died 162 A.V. according to the Digambaras, or 170 A.V. according to the Śvētāmbaras." Dr. Jacobi says:³ "The date of Bhadrabāhu's death is placed identically by all Jaina authors, from Hēmachandra down to the most modern scholiast, in the year 170 A.V." This is 297 B.C.

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¹ *loc. cit.*

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² *IA.* xxi. 59, 60.

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³ *Kalpasūtra*, Introd. 13.

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The inscription records the death of a certain Āchārya, who was evidently a leader of the migration to the South, for he bade farewell to the entire *sangha*—that is, the sangha previously mentioned as migrating with him to the South—and sent them on their way, in order that he might remain on the hill and perform the penance before death. During this final period he was ministered to by one single disciple (out of those who had accompanied him). The name of the Ācārya is apparently given as Prabhāchandra, but if the other reading above noted, proposed by Jains on the spot, might stand, Prabhāchandra would indicate the disciple, and is explained as the clerical name adopted by Chandra Gupta. The Ācārya would therefore be Bhadrabāhu.¹ That this was the name of the last of the śrutakēvalis there is no doubt whatever. And that the first Maurya emperor, Chandra Gupta, the Sandrakoptos of the Greek historians, who reigned from 321 to 297 B.C., was contemporary with him, and disappeared from public life in the same year that Bhadrabāhu, as above shown, died, is equally clear. The question then naturally arises, What evidence is there that they were in any way connected?

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¹ He is described as pūrṇa-chandra in SB 104. — It has been attempted by Dr. Fleet (EI. iv. 24) to make out that the Bhadrabāhu of the inscription was a later one of that name, who is said to have lived in the first century B.C., and that Chandragupta means his disciple Guptigupta. But no necessity appears for assuming that a long period intervened between the Bhadrabāhu in the opening portion and the one with whom the narrative begins, and that they were different persons. For even in the Kalpasūtra of Bhadrabāhu the section headed Sthavirāvali extends to many generations beyond him, which is accounted for as being for the sake of auspiciousness (see Introd. 23). Guptigupta, again, is nowhere mentioned in any inscription. The solitary instance in which the name was supposed to occur has been shown by Dr. Lüders (EI. iv. 339) to have no such meaning. Moreover, this Guptigupta is said to have had other names, one of which, it is significant to note, was Viśākha, the name of the successor of Bhadrabāhu I. To imagine also, with Dr. Leumann (in his kindly critique), that Prabhāchandra belonged to some still more distant period, farther removed from both, is in direct contradiction to the inscription, which unmistakably shows that he accompanied the sangha on its migration. The name Prabhāchandra is not an uncommon one among the Jain gurus, and occurs at all periods. But the one honoured with this unique memorial was no ordinary man. In the effort to discover some one of the name of sufficient distinction to whom it can be fitted, a certain Digambara teacher is suggested, who cannot be shown to have lived till a later time than that of the inscription, and of course he would in no way be connected with the migration. To justify this proposed piecemeal and disjointed treatment of the inscription, it is represented that the first portion was a customary introduction to Jain inscriptions. But plausible as this may appear in theory, it is opposed to fact, for not a single inscription has been found with this introduction.

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As to this, Mr. Thomas says:² “That Chandra Gupta was a member of the Jaina community is taken by their writers as a matter of course and treated as a known fact, which needed neither argument nor demonstration. . . . The testimony of Megasthenes would likewise seem to imply that Chandra Gupta submitted to the devotional teaching of the Sermanas as opposed to the doctrines of the Brāhmans.” In treating of the Hindu religious sects, Professor Wilson says:¹ “It has been supposed that we have notices of the Jaina sect as far back as the period at which Megasthenes was sent ambassador to Sandracoptus, and that these notices are recorded by Strabo and Arrian.” Colebrooke, who examined the passages referred to, says:² “The followers of Buddha are clearly distinguished from the Brachmanes and Sarmanes. The latter, called Germanes by Strabo and Samanæans by Porphyrius, are the ascetics of a different religion, and may have belonged to the sect of Jina or to another.” Megasthenes, in his *Indika*, says³ of the Sarmanes who live in the woods: “They communicate with the kings, who consult them by messengers regarding the causes of things, and who through them worship and supplicate the deity.” The story of Chandra Gupta's accession to the throne of the Nandas is dramatised in the Sanskrit play named *Mudrā Rākshasa*, by Viśākhadatta, which has been translated by Professor Wilson.⁴ In this we see that Jains held a prominent position at the time, and Chānakya—also called Vishnugupta and Kauṭilya—who was the prime agent in the revolution, employs a Jain as one of his chief emissaries.

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² Jainism, or the Early Faith of Asoka, 23.

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¹ Works, i. 324.

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² Essays, ii. 203.

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³ McCrindle's Indika of Megasthenes (IA. vi. 244).

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⁴ Theatre of the Hindus, ii. 125. The work is no doubt much older than he thought, owing to his erroneous opinion that the Jains were later than the Buddhists. It is now well established that they were more ancient. Professor Speyer (in his recent Studies about the Kathāsaritsāgara) also says: “Viśākhadatta and his admirable drama are to be placed many centuries earlier than is generally done” (JRAS, 1908, p. 910).

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We are therefore not without warrant for assuming that Chandra Gupta was a Jain by creed. At the period when he becomes associated with Bhadrabāhu, he was much troubled in mind on account of sixteen dreams with which he had been visited. These are mentioned in many narratives relating to him. Bhadrabāhu in the course of his travels having come to Pātaliputra, the capital, the king consulted him as to their interpretation, and was dismayed at the coming troubles which they portended, including the twelve years of famine. He seems consequently, impressed by Bhadrabāhu’s exhortations, to have resolved to retire from the throne, and to place himself under the guidance of this the most distinguished Jain teacher then living, for the right performance of penitential acts in view of the impending calamities. He was, as Mr. V. A. Smith has pointed out,¹ not fifty years of age at the time. He is not expressly stated to have died, and no special reason appears for his death at this early age. Had he fallen in battle, or his life been cut short by accident or disease, the circumstance could not fail to have been mentioned. But if he retired from the throne in order to devote himself, in accordance with the dictates of the Jain religion, to an ascetic life in the last stage of his existence,² and accompanied Bhadrabāhu to the South, this affords a reasonable explanation of his early disappearance from public notice and of the silence regarding his further career, for absolute renunciation of all earthly ties was of the essence of the vow he had taken. On the other hand, the southern accounts represent him as living an ascetic life at Śravaṇa-Beḷgoḷa for twelve years after the decease of Bhadrabāhu.³ His death then occurred when he was about sixty-two years of age, which seems more natural and so far entitled to credence.

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¹ EHI. 128.

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² Aśōka, who was his grandson, did the same, as will be seen below.

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³ Twelve years of penance were always thought essential for obtaining perfection, and for every ascetic who endeavours to quit this life with the best claims to enter one of the highest heavens or even Nirvāna (Jacobi, SBE. xxii. Introd. 18).

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That the north of Mysore may even at that period have been a part of the Maurya empire is not beyond probability. For the Edicts of Aśōka are evidence that it was so two generations later; and as the only conquest Aśōka is said to have made was that of Kalinga or Orissa, it follows that the rest of his empire was inherited from his predecessors. If it be true, moreover, as above stated, that the Nandas ruled over Kuntala, then the Mauryas naturally acquired it in succession to them. One inscription, indeed (Sb 263), says that Nāgakhaṇḍa (the Shikarpur tāluq) "was protected by the wise Chandra Gupta, an abode of the usages of eminent Kshattriyas"; but this is of the fourteenth century and too much cannot be built upon it. Of special interest, however, is the statement in the work by Harishēna before referred to, that when, as described in the Śravaṇa-Beḷgoḷa inscription, the *sangha* were sent on their way, "they went by the guru's direction to the Punnāṭa country, situated in the South."¹ This was a province in the south-west of the Mysore State. It is mentioned in the second century by Ptolemy as Pounnata, "where is beryl." It is also named in the fifth century in connection with the Ganga king Avinīta (Cg 1), whose son Durvvinīta married the Punnāṭ king's daughter, and united it to the Ganga territory. An inscription of the Punnāṭ Rājas² gives Kitthipura as their capital, which is identified (Hg 56) with Kittūr on the Kabbani river in the Heggaḍadēvankōṭe tāluq. One of the ancient rock inscriptions on Chandragiri (SB 7) records the death of a Jain guru from Kittūr.

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¹ *Sanghō'pi samastō guru-vākyataḥ dakshiṇā-patha-dēśastha-Punnāṭa-vishayam yayau.*

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² *IA.* xii. 13; xviii. 366.

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To turn now to the Edicts of Aśōka. They are also engraved on the natural horizontal surface of the rock, in three places near to one another in the Molakālmuru tāluq. The most perfect is on a big boulder at the north-west foot of Brahmagiri (Mk 21). The other two, which are much effaced, are one to the north of Siddapura, which is about a mile to the west (Mk 14), and the remaining one on the Jaṭinga Rāmēśvara hill, about three miles to the north (Mk 34). They are all three virtually alike, but differ from three somewhat similar ones in the north of India,—those at Bairāṭ in Rājputāna, Rūpnāth in the Central Provinces, and Sahasrām in Bengal,—in containing two edicts and not one, of which the second is a brief summary of the precepts of *dhamma* or the moral law. Another peculiarity is that, although they are [Figure: EDICTS OF AŚOKA, BRAHMAGIRI.

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in the Brāhmī characters,¹ written from left to right, to these edicts in other parts, the last word, in which states his profession, is in the Kharōshṭhī characters,² m right to left, which are found only in the extreme of the Punjab. The date of these edicts is believed essed in the figures 256 which occur at the end of dict, and which are understood as referring to the years from the death of Buddha, though they have nterpreted in many various and quite irreconcilable e edicts themselves would thus belong to the year This was the last year of Aśōka’s life, and thirty-eight his coronation-anointing. Dr. Fleet professes⁴ to have discovered that “particular interest attaches to the Mysore versions, because the Brahmagiri text discloses the fact that it was framed on the anniversary of Aśōka’s abdication, and when he was living in religious retirement on the hill Suvarnagiri, still known as Songir, which was one of the hills surrounding the ancient city of Girivraja in Magadha.” Whether all this be so or not is by no means determined.⁵

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¹ The source of the Devanāgarī and other alphabets of India. It is apparently of Semitic origin, and was introduced into India in about the ninth century B.C. But an indigenous origin has also been claimed for it (see *IA.* xxxv. 253).

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² A form of Aramaic script introduced by the Persians after the conquests of Darius in the sixth century B.C.

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⁴ *JRAS*, 1905, p. 304.

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⁵ See *Aśōka Notes*, by V. A. Smith and F. W. Thomas, in *IA.* xxxvii. ; also *The Last Edict of Aśōka*, by Fleet, in *JRAS*, 1908, p. 811.

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The language of the edicts is what is known as Māgadhi, with some local peculiarities. All three in Mysore begin in the same way, with greeting from the Ayaputa (Āryaputra or Prince) and the Mahāmātas (high officials) of Suvannagiri (identified as above) to the Mahāmātas⁶ of Isila (possibly Sidda in Siddapura). The edicts are introduced with the formula “Devānam Piye commands” or “Thus says Devānam Piye.”⁷

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³ For a summary of these, see *JRAS*, 1904, p. 4 ff.

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⁶ It is interesting to find this term *mahāmātra* in use so late as the eleventh century (see Nl 1).

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⁷ This formula, with which most of the edicts are introduced, recalls the similar one in the famous trilingual inscription of Darius at Behistan, of 516 B.C., every section of which commences with, “Says Darius the king.”

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This name (Devānām priyaḥ), meaning “Beloved of the gods,” was a royal title borne by the Maurya kings. It is sometimes used alone, but more often in conjunction with the king's name. It thus occurs as an epithet of Piyadasi (Priyadarśi) and of Dasaratha his grandson. The main object of the present edicts is to exhort all classes to greater effort in pious duties. In doing this the king adduces his own example, how while he was a lay disciple he did not exert himself strenuously, but after he entered the sacred Order he did so, and as the result the men who were (regarded as) true in Jambu-dvīpa (were shown to be) false, together with the gods. This was the fruit of effort or exertion, and in the same way the lowly, as well as the great, could by exertion attain to svarga (or heavenly bliss). A precept to this effect is quoted, said to have been delivered by the Vyūtha (or the Departed, that is Buddha) 256 (? years ago).

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With regard to the various circumstances referred to in the above summary. The king, in the thirteenth Rock Edict, had proclaimed that remorse on account of the slaughter and devastation that attended his conquest of Kalinga, which was effected in the ninth year of his reign, had made him resolve for the future to maintain peace and devote himself to religion. At length he became a Buddhist—and he here says that during the time when he was an upāsaka (or lay disciple) he did not put forth much effort. But more than six years before our present inscriptions, he entered the sangha (or sacred order) and vigorously exerted himself. What ensued from these special efforts has been stated above, but the sentence is elliptic and not over clear. It is generally agreed, however, and there can be no question, that the reference is to the Brāhmans, who are designated throughout Hindu literature by several terms which mean “gods on earth.” As M. Senart says: “After his conversion the king proceeded to deprive the Brāhmans of the almost divine prestige they enjoyed throughout the whole of India.” Their authority being rejected, their gods were also deposed. That it was to Buddhism the king was converted there can be no doubt. Previous to this change of faith he was apparently a Jain. Akbar’s minister Abul Fazl says in the *Ain-i-Akbari* that Aśōka introduced Jainism into Kashmir, and this is confirmed by the *Rāja-tarangini*, the Brahmanical history of Kashmir. That he was a Jain has also been deduced from his edicts.¹ But some are of opinion that he followed the Brāhman creed. His conversion at length to Buddhism was not signalised by persecution of his former co-religionists, but by inducing a revolution throughout India in the public estimation of them. In short, the members of the Order no doubt took advantage of the king’s presence and adhesion to influence him to depose their rivals, whether Brāhmans or Jains, from their former pre-eminence. This action of his does not invalidate the express injunctions to toleration contained in so many of his edicts, wherein he inculcates more than once the duty of reverence to and the bestowal of alms upon both Brāhmanas and Śramanas. Toleration was denied only to their false claims. On the other hand, it would be strange if no trace whatever could be discovered of the resentment which would naturally be evoked by so powerful though silent and peaceful a revolution in time-honoured beliefs. And we may perhaps find a trace in the fact that Devānāmpriyaḥ, as one word, is explained by Kātyāyana in the Vārttikas to Pāṇini as synonymous with *mūrkha*, a fool! This was a very characteristic retaliation, if so meant, and the use of the word thus authorised has come down even to the present time, and is common, I am told, at all events among the Brāhmans.²

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¹ Thomas, *Jainism, or the Early Faith of Asoka*; also by Professors Kern (*IA.* v. 275), Pischel, Minayeff, etc. Reasons have been given above for the belief that Chandra Gupta, the grandfather of Aśōka, was a Jain. His grandson Sampadi or Samprati was also a devoted Jain.

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² See also the satirical verses on Aśōka quoted in vol. v., Introd. 30, 31, from the *Bhōja Prabandha*.

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The second edict in our inscriptions is as follows: “Thus says the Beloved of the gods:—Obedience should be rendered to mother and father. So also regard for living creatures should be enforced. Truth should be spoken. These virtues of the sacred law should be practised. So also the teacher should be honoured by the pupil, and towards relations due respect indeed should be shown. This is the ancient standard (of piety),—this conduces to long life, and this should thus be done.” There is a striking resemblance here to the fifth commandment of the Mosaic code. The whole tone indeed of the Edicts of Aśōka is both higher than and quite different from that of any other inscriptions found in India. Solicitude for the welfare here and hereafter of all his subjects, high and low, is manifest throughout, and it extended even to peoples beyond his boundaries in an all-embracing humanity. His concern for the latter was shown practically by the despatch of missionaries to bordering lands. Among other places, it is of special interest to note that he sent a *thēra* named Mahadeva to Mahisa-maṇḍala, the country round Mysore¹—which must therefore have been a place of importance even at that period—and a *thēra* named Rakkhita to Vanavāsi, known as Banavāsi, on the north-west of the State.

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¹ Mysore, properly Maisūru, derives its name from *mahisha*, Sanskrit for buffalo, reduced in Prākrit to *mahisa* and in Kannaḍa to *maisa*, and *ūru*, Kannaḍa for town or country; which commemorates the destruction of Mahishāsura, a minotaur or buffalo-headed monster, by Chāmuṇḍi or Mahishāsura-mardani, the form under which the consort of Śiva is worshipped as the tutelary goddess of the reigning family. Mahisa-maṇḍala appears in the Tamil form Erumai-nāḍu in Mānūlanār’s *Aganānūru*, which is of the second century.

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