Indian Epigraphy c15.t7.18

c15.t7.18

In medieval times, people tried to forget the foreign association of the Śaka era and the word *śaka* began to be used in the sense of ‘an era.’ The same tendency is apparently noticed from the 13th century when the era was often associated, especially in the southern and western regions of India, with Śālivāhana, famous in Indian tradition and folklore as a great popular hero. The earliest association of the era with Śālivāhana is found in the Kannada work *Udbhaṭakāvya* by Somarāja composed in Śaka 1144 expired (1222 A.D.) and the Tasgaon plates (Śaka 1172=1251 A.D.) of the Yādava king Kṛṣṇa.²