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JUNE, 1874.]
deduced from Mahavira, through his disciple Sudharma. Of the rest all but Gautama died before their Master, and Gautama survived him but a month, which he spent in penance and fasting. Sudharma, therefore, was the only one who remained competent to impart instruction. His pupil was Jambusvâmi, the last of the Kevalis, or possessors of true wisdom: six teachers follow, termed Śruta Kevalis, or hearers of the first masters, and then seven others, Dasapurvis, from having been taught the works
so named. These are common to all the lists when correct." In a note to the extract a list is given of the six Śruta Kevalis, the last two being Bhadra Bahu and Sthûla Bhadra. It is evident that the Śruta Kevalis were contemporary; slight variations may therefore be expected in the order of naming them. Now we learn from the narrative of the Rájávali Kathe that Govarddhana, Vishnu, Nandi Mitra, and Aparajita were the names of four of them who visited in company the tomb of Jambusvâmi. Also that S thûla Bhadra, whom we will suppose to be a fifth, stayed out the famine in the north. Bhadra Bâ ha is therefore consistently called the last, that is, the sixth. The names occur in the same order in the inscription, but Sthûla Bhadra is there omitted, the reason for which may be that those who remained in the famine-stricken districts were considered to have fallen from orthodoxy through forced neglect of religious observances,-an opinion which receives support from more than one statement in the history. The great Svetâmbara secession appears, according to the same, to have arisen out of the irregularities of that period of distress.
That Visâk hâ succeeded Bhadra Bâhu is ascertained from both records.
Before considering the story of Chandragupta, it may be well to ascertain, with the aid of the chronological table at the end of the Rájávali Kathe, the date assigned to the last of the Śruta Kevalis, as it will assist in fixing the age of the inscription.
BHADRA BAHU AND ŚRAVANA BELGOLA.
Chronology of the Rájávali Kathe.
After the death of Vîra Varddhamâna Gautama and the other Kevalis. 62 years.
157
Then Nandi Mitra and the other Sruta Kevalis...... ..100 years.
Visakha and the other Dasapurvis... ........183 39 Nakshatra and the other Ekadasingadhara ...... ....223 Then was born Vikramaditya in Ujjayini; and he, by his knowledge of astronomy, having made an almanac, established his own era from the year Rûdirodgâri, the 605th year after the death of Varddhamâna.
An interesting summary of the rise of various heresies, and the location of the principal sanghas and gachchhas follows, but need not be intro
duced here.
Works, vol. I. p. 336.
+ From various statements LASSEN obtains B.C. 392, 569, 358, and 495 (Ind. Alt. IV. pp. 762, 779); WEBER, B.C. 349 (Sat. Mah. p. 12); COLEBROOKE, B.C. 651 (As. Res. IX.
33
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successors.
All Jaina chronology turns upon the disputed period of the death of Varddhamâna or Mahavira. From the list above given we obtain for that event the date B.C. 661, † and for the death of the last Śruta Kevali B.C. 499. The inscription cannot, therefore, be older than this latter date. But that it was inscribed some time after the events to which it relates, is evident from the genealogy being carried on to Visakha, the first of the Dasapurvis, and his There seems, therefore, nothing by which to approximate to the time when the inscription was engraved on the stone, except the character of the letters as compared with other inscriptions at the same place. Now at the foot of the great statue are a few words, in Devanagari and in Ancient Kanarese characters, stating that it was erected by Châmunda Râya. These characters are not so archaic in form as those of the inscription now before us. But assuming, as is reasonable, that they were engraved at the time of the erection of the image by that prince, we must, according to Wilson, assign to them the date B.c. 50 or 60. So far, then, as our data go, we may perhaps put down our inscription as of the third or fourth century B.C.
We may now investigate the story of Chandragupta and the Jainas of his day. The identification of this sovereign with the Sandrakoptos of the Greek historians, and the contemporary of Seleucus, has long supplied one of the most certain landmarks in the history of Ancient India. Of the religious sects existing
p. 264) TOD, B.C. 533 (An. Raj. I. p. 59). In the Jour. Bomb. Br. R. As. Soc. vol. IX. p. 150, Bhadra Bahu is placed 170 years after Mahavira.
I Works, I. p. 833.
