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THE JAINA LAW
book must, therefore, be almost as old as Lord Mahavira himself, and therefore not only of very boary antiquity, but also of unparalleled authority.
The author of the book, Bhadrababu Svâmi, is The author of the a figure that towers high and book.
heroic in the dim darkness of Jaina history. He flourished about 365 B.C.-162 years after Lord Mahavira's Nirvana. Chandragupta dreamt 16 dreams, the last one being a dreadful serpent with 12 hoods. On being referred to his spiritual guru, Bhadrabahu, it was interpreted into a dire famine of 12 years. These famines were not quite unknown to the neighbourhood of Pataliputra (modern Patna), the capital of the great Mauryan Empire.* Sometime after this, Bhadrabâhu Tent to beg alms in the city, but a child was crying so lustily that he did not get a hearing even after 12 calls. Reading in this the sure advent of the famine, and fearing that it would be impossible for Jaina ascetics to live in accordance with the scriptures, Bhadrababu started for the South of India, with a large number of his ascetic-disciples. Chandragupta also, being repelled by the sinful world, made his kingdom over to his son, Simbasepa, alius Bindusara, became a Jaina ascetic under the
*Sco Buddhist India, by T. W. Rhys Davids, 1908 (London : T. Fisher Unvin), pp. 40-50.
