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 21

128
M. A. Dhaky
Jambū-jyoti
rejuvenated it: And on the hill at Velgola, having given up food etc., attained the (state of) cessation of birth (i.e. attained salvation) : "90
श्रीभद्रबाहु सचन्द्रगुप्तमुनीन्द्रयुग्मदिनोप्पेवल्। भद्रमागिद धर्ममन्दु वळ्लिक्केवन्दिनिसळकलो ॥ विद्रुमाधरशान्तिसेनमुनीशनामिएवेळगोळ।
अद्रिमेलशनादि विट्टपुनर्भवक्केरे आगि । This inscription for certain connects Bhadrabāhu with Candragupta, arguably as the teacher and the disciple, though it does not explicitly associate the two with Śravanabelago!a. However, the act of including this phrase in the draft of the inscription would be meaningless if the composer of the text had not intended to convey the connection of the two with this sacred Hill. From this standpoint, it may be regarded as the earliest pointer, even somewhat obliquely, toward that direction.
Next of note are some inscriptions, all of them of medieval period and not valuable as weighty evidence in the historical construct for times very ancient. An inscription of c. A. D. 1110 (71[166]) in the Bhadrabāhu cave, records that some Jinacandra bowed to the feet (carved imprints) of Bhadrabāhusvāmi : And, below the footprints carved on the summit of the Cikkabetta hill, is a 13th century record purporting to the effect that they are those of Bhadrabāhusvămī. What is more, in the two records from Srirangapattana taluk, of c. A. D. 900 (E.C. Vol. III, Sr. 147, 148], it is stated that Kalbappu (Katavapra or Cikkabetta Hill) is blessed with the (carved) imprints of the feet of Bhadrabāhu and Candragupta. Moreover, an inscription of A. D. 1163 (Nos.40 (54), new no. 71) refers to śrutakevali Bhadrabāhu and his disciple Candragupta. Likewise, a record of A. D. 1129 (Nos.5 (67), new no.77) refers to the celebrated pair. And on a pillar in the Siddharabasadi environs on the Doddabetta (Vindhyagiri, Sravanabelagola) are two late records, the first of A. D. 1398 (No.105, [254]) mentioning śrutakevali Bhadrabāhu and the second of A.D. 1432 which mentions śrutakevali Bhadrabāhu and his disciple Candragupta". It thus remains established that, at the dawn of the medieval period, the Bhadrabähu-Candragupta pair and their association with Sravanabelgola was a firmly established fact in the Digambara Jaina lore and later was persistently recalled as inferred from the above-cited inscriptions. And the footprints of Bhadrabāhu were carved on Cikkabuta or Candragiri before A. D. 900.