Indian Epigraphy c15.t6.66

c15.t6.66

Another factor that contributed to the expansion of the era was probably the Ujjayinī school of astronomers who appear to have favoured both the Śaka and Vikrama eras, some of them specially favouring the era of 58 B.C., the foreign association of which had been long ago forgotten. Its use was continued in U. P. by the Malayaketus and the Gurjara-Pratihāras. That the era was introduced in Bihar as well seems to be suggested by the date Saṃvat 898, quoted in Maithila Vācaspati Miśra's *Nyāyasūci* as the year of its composition and a manuscript of the Rāmāyaṇa known to have been copied in Tīrabhukti (Tirhut) in Saṃvat 1076.¹ With the gradual extension of the Gurjara-Pratihāra power over wide regions of Northern India, the popularity of the era of 58 B.C. increased considerably. Another contributing cause of its popularity was the development of the Vikramāditya saga.