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Post-Mahāvīra Period and the Contribution of Jainism
Magadha compelled Bhadrabāhu to seek shelter in south India; he along with his followers and his royal disciple Candragupta Maurya migrated to south India, and this led to the establishment of the Digambara community in Mysore, with Śravaņa Beļgoļa as its centre. 128 B.A. Saletore writes,
Southern tradition, which is corroborated by literary and epigraphic evidence, connects the advent of Jainism into Karnataka and south India with the immigration of the Jainas under Bhadrabāhu and his disciple Candragupta Maurya.129
According to many Jaina authors, Bhadrabāhu died in Karnataka in 297 BC. 130 But many authors discredit this account,131 and assert that Bhadrabāhu retired to Nepal.132
According to the Svetāmbara tradition, the Jaina migration to south India began from Ujjaiyini in Malwa, and this is corroborated by the early Digambara tradition.133 Among the different sects of south India, the Senagana of the Mulasamgha may have been the first migrating group of the Jainas.134 The route of their migration is suggested to be along the western coast, from Gujarat, through Maharashtra to Karnataka, and from there to the extreme south.135 H.D. Sankalia is of opinion that it may not be wrong to suppose that the first wave of Jainism passed over Gujarat-Kathiawad when Bhadrabāhu went to the south in the fourth century BC. 136 In fact, the evidence regarding the Jaina migration to south India does not lead to any definite conclusion Some scholars hold that Jainism reached the Andhra region from the north
128. AOIU, p. 419; HJM, p. 83. 129. MJ, pp. 3-4. 130. Ibid., p. 3. 131. CHAI, III, p. 282. 132. HJM, p. 19; LDJC, p. 32; CHI, I, p. 165. 133. AOIU, p. 419. 134. Ibid. 135. Ibid. 136. H.D. Sankalia, cited in HJM, p. 110 fn. 297.
