The Mauryan Polity c11.s2.t4.7

c11.s2.t4.7

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.