Arya Bhadrabahu

Author(s): M A Dhaky
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M. A. Dhaky
Jambu-jyoti
in Karnataka. But the nearest megalithic habitations were some miles away from Sravanabelagola. There is, indeed, no evidence that Sravanabelagola, with its starkly stony terrain, was inhabited even long centuries after the Maurya times.
There are conflicting notices as to the region where the famine was to visit as per the prediction; was it just Madhyadeśa (central and eastern Uttar Pradesh) or was it the entire northern India. In the former case, there was no need to migrate to Southern India. Also, a continuous draught lasting for as many as 12 years would create a havoc in the ecology of the concerned territories. Most rivers progressively would have dried up. The Jaina writers (of both sects) gave no thought on what, under such circumstances, would have happened to the Brahmanists, the Buddhists, the Ājivakas and other people who all together must have constituted the far larger part of population than the Nirgranthas in north India. Such an eventuality also would have destroyed the larger part of flora and fauna, besides human population of north India. And the Buddhist annals surely would have taken note of it.
The South-oriented source, next in time, seemingly is the “Bhadrabāhu-kathānaka" inside the Brhat-kathākośa of Harisena (A.D. 931)%. It largely agrees with the Vadda-ārādane in several details. It mentions the capital town Koțipura (in Bengal, which, as the author reports, was called in his times Davakotta), the names given of the ruling king and his consort and those of Bhadrābāhu's parents there are the same as mentioned in the Arādhanā-tikā. When Bhadrabahu was young, the caturadaśapūrvi Govardhana muni, who was on his way to Ujjayantagiri* for paying obeisance to Jina Nemi, visited Kotinagara (=Kotipura). Bhadrabāhu apparently was initiated on that occasion by Govardhana muni who imparted the knowledge of the scripture (śruta) to him. After some years, Bhadrabahu, alongwith the caturvidha-samgha, visited Ujjayani-puri (Ujjain), located on the river Kșiprā, in Avanti-visaya. There ruled king Candragupta with his consort Suprabhā. He was already) a (Nirgrantha) śrāvaka possessing true faith (samyag-darśana). While sojourning in Ujjayans, once on his begging tour, in one mansion, Bharabāhu saw a child
*
This Tirtha, however, was not founded till we come to the initial centuries of the Common Era.