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The Mauryan Polity c11.s2.t4: Identification of Prabhācandra

The Mauryan Polity c11.s2.t4

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Identification of Prabhācandra

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In his work on *‘Jainism or the Early Faith of Aśoka,’* Thomas says: “the testimony of Megasthenes would likewise seem to imply that Candragupta submitted to the devotional teachings of the Śramaṇas as opposed to the doctrines of the Brahmanas,”² and remarks that Candragupta and his successors Bindusāra, and Aśoka, at least in his early years of his reign, were Jainas, and that it was Aśoka who introduced Jainism in Kashmir as the *Rājatarangiṇī* would have it. The theory that Candragupta adopted the Jaina faith seems to have won the general approval of scholars interested in the subject.¹ The distinguished Mysore Archæologist Rao Bahadur R. Narasimhacāriar (now retired) who has reopened the question after Lewis Rice; and has examined it in the light of literary and other evidences, concludes "the evidence may not be quite decisive, but it may be accepted as a working hypothesis until the contrary is proved by future research."² This theory is built upon two lines of evidence, one that of Megasthenes and the other that of the literary tradition embodied in the sacred books of the Jainas. The latter version seems to have been based on the inscription No. 1 at Śravaṇa Beḷgoḷa.

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² P. 23.

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¹ Jayaswal, J.B.O.R.S., III, p. 452; Smith, Early History, p. 154; C. J. Shah, Jainism in North India, pp. 135-138.

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² P. 42, Epigraphia Carnatica, Vol. II.

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It would not be out of place to examine here what is contained in the inscription and what is in the legends. The inscription under notice mentions a Bhadrabāhusvāmin and a Prabhācandra. Lewis Rice ingeniously identified this Prabhācandra with Candragupta Maurya saying that that was the clerical name assumed by him after he became convert to the Jaina faith. Another circumstance in this connection is that this Prabhācandra is called an ācārya or a teacher. This identification of Prabhācandra with Candragupta Maurya is unconvincing, for different reasons.

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First, Prabhācandra was a Jaina teacher of equal celebrity as the Śrutakevalin Bhadrabāhu.

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Secondly, a chronological examination of the date of Bhadrabāhu does not fit in with the time of Candragupta Maurya.¹ Dr. Jacobi's researches have led him to assign 170 A.V. as the year of Bhadrabāhu's death.² This works up to 297 B.C., which is generally accepted as the last year of Candragupta's rule and death.³ If this date is accepted and if both Bhadrabāhu and Candragupta died in the same year, no reasonable time would have been assigned to go to the distant Mysore province, and to become a convert and a reputed teacher of the Jaina faith. The legends containing this tradition are those found in the *Br̥hatkathākośa*, *Bhadrabāhucarita*, *Munivamśābhyudaya*, (a Kaṇṇaḍa work c. 1860), and the *Rājāvalikathe* (another Kaṇṇaḍa work of the 18th century). The accounts which find mention in these works do not agree in details. The *Rājāvalikathe*, for example, speaks of a Bhadrabāhu and a supposititious grandson of Aśoka, Candragupta by name, and hence the great grandson of Candragupta I Maurya. The son and grandson of this Candragupta, according to this account, are Simhasena and Bhāskara.⁴ We are not in possession of any other material to speak of a grandson of Aśoka, Candragupta by name. Whatever this may be, the fact remains that it is impossible to confer credibility on the legends.

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¹ See *Indian Antiquary*, XX, pp. 349-51; XXI, p. 156-ff. *Ep. Ind.* III, p. 171, note; IV, 22.

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² See *Kalpasūtra*, Intro., p. 13.

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³ See *C.H.I.*, Vol. I, p. 472.

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⁴ *In. Ant.*, XXI, p. 157.

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Thirdly, not only is there conflicting account between legend and legend, but also between the legends and the inscriptions. If due weight is thrown on the side of the inscriptions, no Mauryan king seems involved in this connection. Apparently some Jaina teacher, a faithful disciple of Bhadrabāhu, is celebrated. The only possible conclusion is that all the Jaina tradition in regard to Candragupta Maurya is imaginary romance, and does not belong to the province of sober history. But both the inscriptions at Śravaṇa Beḷgoḷa and the legends of the Jaina canon are valuable for their statements as to the outbreak of a continued famine and the consequent migration of the Jaina community from the North to the South of India, as far as the Karṇāṭaka country, to settle permanently, and that the movement was led by Bhadrabāhu and his disciple, one Candra or Prabhācandra.

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