Indian Epigraphy c15.t7.22

c15.t7.22

We have to note that the date of the completion of the Siṃha-sūri's *Lokavibhāga* is given in the book as the 22nd regnal year of king Siṃhavarman, lord of Kāñcī, and as the 380th year of the Śaka era.¹ Thus the above Jain work, completed in the Śaka year 380 at Kāñcī, gives us the earliest instance of the use of the Śaka era in South India and the earliest reference to the Śaka association of the reckoning. The spread of the Śaka era in the south seems to be essentially associated with that of the Jains from their stronghold in the Gujarat-Kathiawad region forming a part of the dominions of the Śakas of Western India, who used the era in question till the close of the fourth century A.D. Many of the Jain scholars were apparently employed as astronomers and administrators at the courts of the various South Indian royal families. As already indicated above, the Jains have largely contributed to the development of the legends about Śaka-Śālivāhana and Vikramāditya who are traditionally associated with the Śaka-kāla (later Śālivāhana-śaka or °śaka, the word śaka or śāka here meaning 'an era') and the Vikrama-saṃvat. The Jain preference of the Śaka era is explained by the fact that, in their tradition recorded in works like the *Kālakācāryakathā*, the Śakas are represented as the defenders of the Jain faith.²