In the time of Emperor Chandragupta Maurya there was an unbroken famine in north India that lasted twelve years. Crops failed, alms grew scarce, and many monks could not maintain their daily practice. Acharya Bhadrabahu, the last shrutakevali — knower of the full Jain canon — gathered his community and made a decision that would shape Jain history. He led a large body of monks south, across the Vindhyas, to the green hills of Shravanabelagola in Karnataka, where alms could still be found. Among those who walked with him was the emperor himself — Chandragupta, who had abdicated his throne to live as a Jain monk under Bhadrabahu's guidance. When the famine eventually broke, those monks returned to the north and found that some of their colleagues had unintentionally relaxed certain practices. The dispute over those years would later harden into the great Shvetambar-Digambar division — but the canon itself, carried in the memory of Bhadrabahu's disciples, had been preserved. On Chandragiri hill at Shravanabelagola today, footprints carved into the rock still mark the place where Acharya Bhadrabahu attained samadhi, with his royal disciple at his side.