A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c10.4

c10.4

Jain tradition affirms that when Bhadrabāhu, the last of the saints called śrutakevalins, foretold a famine of twelve years' duration, the Mauryan emperor Chandragupta abdicated the throne and migrated to the South with the saint and his pupils. The emperor is said to have lived for many years as a Jain ascetic in Śravana Belgola in Mysore, and ultimately committed suicide by sallekhana, or starvation, surviving his teacher by twelve years. Inscriptions from Śravana Belgola and its neighbourhood mention Bhadrabāhu and Chandragupta munīndra; one inscription, which may be as old as A.D. 600, mentions the pair (yugma) and says that theirs was the safe faith (dharma); and another of even earlier date, probably not later than the fifth century, contains all the elements of the story given above. Bhadrabāhu, according to this account, foretold at Ujjain a period of twelve years of dire famine, and the whole of the Jain sangha thereupon migrated from the North to the South under his leadership. When they arrived at a mountain named Katavapra (that is, Chandragiri) in a populous and prosperous country (Mysore), an Āchārya (Prabhāchandra by name), knowing he had but a short time to live, sent away the entire sangha and, with only one disciple attending on him, performed penance and gained emancipation from his body. Two inscriptions of about A.D. 900 from the neighbourhood of Seringapatam describe the summit of the lower hill Chandragiri at Śravana Belgola as marked by the footprints of both Bhadrabāhu and Chandragupta munīpati. Later inscriptions at Śravana Belgola bearing dates in the twelfth and fifteenth centuries repeat this tradition with variations. Similar attestation also comes from literary sources, of which the earliest seems to be the *Brihatkathākośa* of Harishena (A.D. 931). The absence of any clear evidence about the actual end of Chandragupta Maurya lends some plausibility to this legend; but it is improbable in itself, and the identity of the Chandragupta muni of the inscriptions is by no means beyond doubt.