Chandragupta Maurya and Jain Renunciation

Few episodes in Jain history are as evocative as the tradition that Chandragupta Maurya, founder of India's first great empire, ended his life not as a conqueror but as a Jain ascetic on a hill in Karnataka. Chandragupta established the Mauryan empire around 321 BCE, unifying much of the subcontinent from his capital at Pataliputra with the guidance of his celebrated minister Chanakya. Jain tradition adds a remarkable coda to this well-documented career.

According to Digambara accounts, in the closing years of his reign Chandragupta came under the spiritual influence of the great teacher Bhadrabahu. When Bhadrabahu foresaw a twelve-year famine in Magadha and resolved to lead his monks southward, the emperor is said to have renounced his throne, abdicated in favour of his son, and accompanied the ascetic community to Shravanabelagola. There, on the hill now called Chandragiri, he lived as a monk and eventually undertook sallekhana, the Jain practice of peaceful fasting unto death, ending his life in accordance with the highest ascetic ideal.

The setting of this tradition is well attested. Shravanabelagola, in the Hassan district of Karnataka, is among the oldest and most important Jain centres in southern India. The smaller of its two hills, Chandragiri, bears the name of the emperor and contains ancient shrines, memorial inscriptions and a cave traditionally associated with Bhadrabahu. Epigraphic references at the site to Bhadrabahu and to the southern migration lend support to the antiquity of the tradition, even if they do not conclusively prove the identity of the royal disciple.

Historians approach the account with measured caution. The core of Chandragupta's historical career, his rise to power, his defeat of Greek forces, his treaty with Seleucus and the extent of his empire, is documented in Greek and Indian sources independent of Jainism. The claim of his Jain conversion and death by sallekhana, however, rests on Jain traditions recorded centuries later. Some scholars accept it as broadly credible, noting the strength and specificity of the Shravanabelagola tradition; others regard it as a pious legend that attached a great emperor to the Jain cause. A minority question whether the royal ascetic was Chandragupta himself or another figure of similar name.

Whatever the verdict on the details, the tradition carries deep significance for Jain historical identity. It links the faith to the very foundation of imperial India and presents the ideal of the renunciant king, a ruler who abandons the highest worldly power for the pursuit of liberation. This image resonates with the ancient Jain narrative of Rishabhanatha and Bharata, in which sovereignty is ultimately surrendered for the spiritual path.

The association also helped make Shravanabelagola a pre-eminent pilgrimage centre, a status it would consolidate a millennium later with the erection of the colossal Bahubali statue nearby. The memory of Chandragupta's renunciation, whether historical fact or cherished tradition, thus contributed to shaping one of the most enduring sacred landscapes of Indian Jainism, where emperors and ascetics are remembered together on the same ancient hills.