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BHADRABAHU AND THE SRAVANABEĻGOLA KSETRA
ROBERT J. ZYDENBOS
In this article, I want to give a short survey of the work done by a few scholars with regard to the old tradition that Jainism was brought to South India by the śrutakevalin Bhadrabahu, who is said to have died by sallekhanā at Sravanabelgola, so that we can form an educated opinion about the authenticity of that account and Bhadrabāhu's importance for Jainism in southern India.
Digambara tradition says that it was on the hill Candragiri at Sravanabe!gola, that Bhadrabāhu, the sixth thera of the Jaina church after Tirthankara Mahavira met his death. He is accredited with having brought Jainism to South India, where it was to flourish brilliantly in the centuries that followed, by leading a following of 12000 monks from the north-east of India to southern Karnataka to avoid a fearful famine, and he played a cardinal role in the development which led finally to the schism that divided the original sangha in the two major sects, the Svetāmbara-s and Digambara-s.' The Svetämbara-s hold him in very high esteem as the author of a number of ancient and holy works. For the Digambara-s, he is the link between their religious tradition and the original teachings of Mahāvira, he being the last śrutakevalin,and hence it is only natural that Sravanabelgola is a place of great importance to them.
The historian B. A. Saletore believed the Digambara tradition, but in his important book Mediaeval Jainism he is not very clear about the "literary and epigraphic evidence" that supports it. He writes that the tradition is supported by "inscriptions on the summit of Candragiri itself and elsewhere, the writings of early Jaina writers like Harişeņa (A. D. 931), and mediaeval and later writers like Ratnanandi (ca. A. D. 1450), Cidānandakavi (A. D. 1680), and Devacandra (A. D. 1838)". He gives no further details, but refers to Rice's and Narasimhacarya's works about inscriptions which have been found in southern India. The
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