History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.660

v6.c82.660

[^1002 a]: Vide I A. vol. 12 p 155 the Dhinikī Grant of King Jāikadeva of Saurāṣṭra of the Vikrama year 794 (737 A D.) 'विक्रमसंवत्सरशतेषु सप्तसु चतुर्नवत्याधिकेषु अङ्कत ७९४ कार्त्तिकमासापरपक्षे अमावास्यायां आदित्यवारे ज्येष्ठानक्षत्रे रविग्रहणपर्वणि &c or Śakabhūpakāla (in Bṛhat-saṁhitā VIII 20-21) Utpala (about 966 A D ) while commenting on Bṛhat-saṁhitā (VIII. 20) remarks that the Śaka era started from the time when the Śaka king was killed by Vikramāditya Its years begın with Caitra for luni-solar reckoning and Meṣa for solar reckoning Its years are generally expired ones and it begins with vernal equinox of 78 A. D The earliest inscription so far discovered in which the śaka era is expressly mentioned is that of Calukya Vallabheśvara dated in 465 śaka (i e 543 A. D )¹⁰⁰⁵ The inscriptions of the Kṣatrapa kings that bear the number of the year but no era are generally ascribed to the śaka era, e g those of Rudradāman in 52 and 72, of Rudrasiṁha in 103, of Rudrasena in 122 (Luder's lıst Nos 965, 963, 962) Emperor Kaniṣka (of the Kuṣāna race) is also connected by some with the foundation of the śaka era ¹⁰⁰⁶ One of the earliest date for the śaka era in literature is mentioned as śaka 380 in the Jain work Lokavibhāga of Simhasūri ¹⁰⁰⁷ As the Pañcasiddhāntikā (XII 2) takes the 2nd year of the śaka era as the epoch of the Pitāmahasiddhānta, it is not too much to assume that the original siddhānta of which a summary is given by Varāhamihira was composed according to him in the first quarter of the first century of the Saka era.¹⁰⁰⁸ In later medieval and modern times (as also in the Jyotirvidābharaṇa) the śaka era goes by the name of Śālivāhana. But the form Śālivāhana as that of the era occurs only in the inscriptions of the 13th or 14th century A. D. e. g. the two earliest inscriptions so far discovered mentioning the word Śālivāhana are those recorded in the plate of Devagiri Yādava king Kṛṣṇa dated in Śālivāhana era 1172 (1251 A. D.)¹⁰⁰⁹ and the plate of Bukka I dated in śaka 1276, current (1354 A. D.). Vide No 455 in Kielhorn's list in E. I. VII. It is possible that the name Sātavāhana (mentioned in Harṣa-carita as the composer of the Gāthāsaptaśatī) was changed into Śālavāhana, then into Śālivāhana and this conjecture is supported by the fact that in the Gāthāsaptaśatī (V. 67) king Sālāhana (a Prakrit form of Sātavāhana) is mentioned; 'only two know how to raise high distressed families (by śleṣa, the family of Aparṇā), viz. Śiva beloved of the heart of Gaurī or the king Sālāhana (Sātavāhana)'. Vide C. R. C. Report pp. 244-256 for the śaka era and Ludwig Bachhofer's paper on 'Greeks and Śakas in India' in J. A. O. S. vol 61 (1941) pp. 223-250, where he attacks some of the downright and very emphatic assertions of Dr. W. W. Tarn in 'the Greeks in Bactria and India'.