Jaina Culture

Author(s): Mohanlal Mehta
Publisher: P V Research Institute Varanasi

Page 26

ANTIQUITY AND HISTORY
the Head of the Jaina Church in the time of Candragupta's reign (322-298 B. C.) was Bhadrabahu. He was the last Śrutakevalin. He prophesied a twelve-year famine and led a migration of a large number of Jaina monks to South India: They settled in the vicinity of Śravaņa Belgola in Mysore. Bhadrabahu himself died there. King Candragupta, an adherent of the Jaina faith, left his throne and went to Sravaņa Belgola. He lived there for a number of years in a cave as an ascetic and finally embraced death. Samprati :
Sthalabhadra's pupil Suhastin had won King Samprati, the grandson of and successor to Asoka, for Jainism. Samprati was very zealous in the promotion and propagation of Jainism. He showed his enthusiasm by causing Jaina temples to be erected over the whole of the country. During Suhastin's stay at Ujjain (Samprati's capital), and under his guidance, splendid religious festivals were celebrated. The devotion manifested by the king and his subjects on such occasions was great. The example and advice of King Samprati induced his vassals to embrace and patronise Jainism. He had sent out missionaries as far as to South India. In order to extend the sphere of their activities to non-Aryan countries, Samprati sent there Jaina monks as messengers. They acquainted the. people with the kind of food and other requisites which Jaina monks may accept as alms. Having thus prepared the way for them, Samprati induced the superior to send monks to those countries. Accordingly, missionaries were sent to the countries of Andhra and Dramila in South India. Kharavela :
Somewhere near Samprati's time tiiere lived King Kharavela of Kalinga. His inscription in a cave of Khandagiri, dating around the middle of the second century B. C., tells among other things of how he constructed rock-dwellings and gave abundant gifts to Jaina devotees. There are some