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Early History of Jainism and Migrations.... : 7
composed the Chedasūtras. During this time, there was a severe drought and famine. Many monks took the vow of sallekhanā and died in samādhi. “The rest of the monks migrated to other places especially coastal areas or places near to the rivers & [sic] sea and wandered with detachment."46 Bhadrabāhu went to Nepal and began tapas. After the famine was over, many of the monks returned to central India, but Bhadrabāhu remained in Nepal. As he was the only one with knowledge of the fourteen pūrvas, Sthūlabhadra approached him in order that the knowledge of the Jaina canon would be preserved. A group of 500 Jain monks traveled to Nepal to learn the pūrvas. After some time, all of the monks except Sthūlabhadra got tired and found the task too difficult, so they returned home. During Bhadrabāhu's twelve years of mahāprāņa meditation, Sthūlabhadra remained and learned ten of the pūrvas. At this time he was visited by his sisters. In order to impress them with the knowledge he had learned, he turned himself into a lion. Thinking that their brother had been eaten by a lion, the women ran to Bhadrabāhu. Bhadrabāhu instantly understood what had happened. Because Sthūlabhadra could not control the temptation of displaying his power, Bhadrabāhu refused to teach him the remaining four pūrvas. After some debate, Bhadrabāhu conceded to teach Sthūlabhadra the original text of the last four pūrvas, but not to reveal their “meaning and special interpretation”.“? Jaina and Surana conclude that according to the literary evidence of the Digambaras there were five different ācāryas named Bhadrabāhu, while the texts of the Svetāmbaras suggest the existence of only two.48 In addition to these initial Digambara texts, there is also a large corpus of medieval texts that position Bhadrabāhu as the leader of a migration to South India and provide an important founding narrative for the Digambara center of Sravana Belgoļa. The Brihatkathākāśa by Harisena (c. 931) contains a biography of Bhadrabāhu and recounts the tale of his migration to south. In this story,49 after hearing an infant crying out to him to go away, Bhadrabāhu has a premonition that there will be a twelve year famine in Ujjain. Because he senses that the end of his life is drawing near, he resolves to remain in the city alone, but sends King Chandragupta and the sangha of Jain ascetics to the Punnāma kingdom in the south. After fasting for many days, Bhadrabāhu dies. Twelve years later, Chandragupta, having assumed the name of Viśākhācārya, returns to Madhya-deśa with the rest of the sangha.
In another version of the story told in the Bhadrabāhucarita by Ratnanandi (c. 15th century),50 after predicting the twelve year famine, Bhadrabāhu advises the sangha to go to “Karņāta" with him. However, during the journey they reached a forest and perceiving that the end of his life was near, Bhadrabāhu appoints leadership of the sangha to Viśākhācārya. King Chandragupta remains with Bhadrabāhu, while the rest of the sangha continued on to "Chõļa country”. Soon after, Bhadrabāhu takes the vow of sallekhanā and dies. Chandragupta builds a tomb for Bhadrabāhu and an image of his feet to worship. In a later Kannada version, the Munivamśābhyudaya by Chidanandakavi (c. 1680),5l the śrutakevali Bhadrabāhu came to Belgoļa and was killed by a tiger. Dakşiņācārya founded a temple to Bhadrabāhu containing his footprints. At some time later, Chandragupta came to Belgoļa on pilgrimage to worship at this place and received dikṣā, ascetic initiation, from
