Bhadrabahu is remembered as the last shruta-kevali — the last acharya who knew the entire body of scripture, including the fourteen Purvas, by heart.
The Digambara tradition tells that he foresaw a twelve-year famine in the north, when monks would not be able to find proper alms. He led a large group of monks south to Karnataka. With him, by this tradition, came the emperor Chandragupta Maurya, who had renounced his throne to become his disciple. At Shravanabelagola, Bhadrabahu undertook sallekhana, the peaceful fast unto death, on the hill now called Chandragiri; a cave there bears his name, and Chandragupta is said to have served him to the end. Inscriptions on Chandragiri from around the 7th century CE record this tradition.
The Svetambara tradition tells that he went to Nepal for a long meditation, where the monk Sthulabhadra went to learn the Purvas from him, and credits him with the Kalpasutra and commentaries on the canon.
Either way, his time marks a turning point: the knowledge of the complete scriptures began to fade, and the two great traditions of Jainism later traced their paths from here.
