Compendium of Jainism

Author(s): T K Tukol, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Prasaranga Karnatak University Dharwar

Page 61

AFTER MAHAVIRA AND THE SCHISM
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of the tenets as propounded by Mahāvīra. Sometimes, there used to be serious exchanges of words; assaults were not unusual.
It is very difficult to say that these quarrels gave rise to the new sects. It appears that even during the time of Pārsva, there used to be some monks who wore short loin clothes but they had no differences either with their Niaster or with his successor. There are, however, differing accounts of the birth of new schisms. There are some legends also.
The migration of Bhadrabāhu along with a body of 12000 monks to the South sometime between 296 or 298 B. C, is a landmark in the history of Jainism. The first inscription of 600 A. D. at Sravanabelagoļa in Karnataka refers to this event and the relevant part may be quoted here : “Now indeed, after the sun Mahāvira who had risen to elevate the whole world and who had shone with a thousand brilliant rays, his virtues which caused the blooming of the lotuses, the blessed people, nourished the lake of the supreme Jaina doctrien which was an abode of pre-eminent virtues had completely set, Bhadrabāhu svāmi, of lineage rendered illustrious by a succession of great men who came in regular descent from the venerable supreme șši Gautama-ganadhara, his immediate disciple Lohācārya, Jambu, Vişnudeva, Aparājita, Govardhana, Bhadrabābu, Viśākha, Prosthila, Kritikārya, Sayanāma, Siddhartha, Dhịtişeņa, Buddhila and other teachers, who was acquainted with the true nature of the eight-fold great omen and foretold in Ujjayani a calamity lasting for a period of twelve years, the entire Sangha (or the community) set out from the North to the South and reached by degrees a country with many hundreds of villages and filled with happy people..."2 According to the tradition, Chandragupta Maurya who was Emperor abdicated his throne and accompanied the Srutakevalin. Two inscriptions (Nos. 17 & 18 on the Chandragiri Hill and two others found near Srirangapattanam mention Bhadrabāhu and Chandragupta as two ascetics. That the two came together to śravanabelagoļa is