Arya Bhadrabahu

Author(s): M A Dhaky
Publisher: Z_Nirgranth_Aetihasik_Lekh_Samucchay_Part_1_002105.pdf and Nirgranth_Aetihasik_Lekh_Samucchay_Part_2

Page 18

Arya Bhadrabāhu
less had been the starting point of discussion in several serious writings. It refers to a prediction in Ujjayani by Bhadrabahu, an expert on the eightfold omenology (aṣṭanga-nimitta)-he is not called there either 'śrutakevali' or 'caturdaśa-pūrvadhara" of the visitation of a 12-year famine (dvādaśa samvatsara-kāla-vaiṣamya, implied to be in north India) whereupon the entire Nirgrantha community (samasta-samgha) from north India (Uttarapatha) migrated to south India (Dakṣināpatha). At some point, when this congregation (samgha) was passing through southwestern Karṇāta (the specific area later to be called Gangaväḍi), a pontiff by name Prabhācandra, sensing his end approaching, separated himself from the congregation and clambered the hill Katavapra (Cikkabetta or Candragiri Hill in Śravanabelgola) along with one disciple (name not specified) with the objective of passing away in peace (samadhi) by the rite of suspension of aliment unto death (sanyāsārādhitavan). And in course of time, some 700 other friars in succession followed (the same path, of dying by the rite of sallekhana), the inscription in question reports as its end note83.
The said inscription does not bring Bhadrabahu to this Hill; his rôle was confined to making the prophesy of the oncoming draught that was to last for 12 years. Indeed, the central focus of the inscription is "Prabhācandra," not Bhadrabahu. What is more, the inscription is silent on Candragupta, a significant omission. There is likewise not the slightest indication there to warrant equating Prabhācandra with Bhadrabahu and, the unnamed accompanying disciple, with Candragupta; nor, on the other hand, is there even the vaguest hint that would allow identitying Prabhäcandra with Candragupta. Indeed, no source clarifies that the Maurya emperor Candragupta, after his supposed ordination as a Nirgrantha friar, was rechristened Prabhācandra. Such an identification has been conjectured by some writers of our times, but without any clear or firm evidence to base upon. In any case, the inscription, like the Aradhanā of Sivärya, is silent on what happened to Bhadrabahu or where he proceeded after the prediction he is said to have made in Ujjayanī.
Now, to explain away the silences, an inference has been drawn from this inscription that two Bhadrabāhu-s (as stated here in annotation 82) are implied, the first one is he who figures in the pontifical sequence from Loharya downwards, that is the one who was the disciple of Govardhana and preceptor of Visakha as also the preceptor of Candragupta: It was he who,
the
125