Gyandhara

Author(s): Gunvant Barvalia
Publisher: Saurashtra Kesari Pranguru Jain Philosophical and Literary Research Centre

Page 298

With the consent of the parents took diksha and become Acharya. It was this scholarly Acharya during the days of the Chandragupt Maurya foretold in Ujjain, a period of twelve years of dire calamity and famine. The whole sangh living in the the Northern region of India, in the leadership of Acharya Bhadrabahu, took their way to South. The story also tells that Chadragupt Maurya had sixteen dreams, which he communicated to the Acharya Bhadrabahu. In the last dream he saw a serpent with twelve head, which Acharya interpreted to mean that there will be twelve years severe famine and so it broke out in the country.
The Jain Migration
The Mauryan king Chandragupt passing on the throne on his son's shoulder took diksha and joined Bhadrabahu who, with twelve thousand disciples migrated from North to South. On their march towards South, Sruta Kevli had a strange feeling that he will die and at once ordered a halt. The place where they stayed was a mountain range and the population was very wealthy, as they possessed money, grains, cows, buffaloes and goats. He sent his disciples further to Chola, Pandya and other countries for the spread of Jainism. Chandragupt stayed with Sruta Kevli till he breathed his last. Such is the legendry account of the advent of the Jain sage and thus the Jain tradition in South. The inscription of the Sravan Belgoda gives us a complete picture of the whole story.
About Chandragupt
Chandragupt, the founder of the Mauryan kingdom was follower of Jain tradition. He ascended the throne at an early age and retired with Bhadrabahu at Chandragiri hill as an
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