Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c8.s1.17

c8.s1.17

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?