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{{Short description|Hindu calendar era}}
[[File:Western Satrap Damasena year 153.jpg|thumb|300px|Coin of Western Satrap ruler Damasena. The minting date, here 153 (100-50-3 in Brahmi script numerals) of the Saka era, therefore 231 CE, clearly appears behind the head of the king.]]
The '''Shaka era''' (IAST: '''Śaka, Śāka''') is a historical Hindu [[History:Calendar era|calendar era]] (year numbering), the [[History:Epoch|epoch]] (its year zero){{refn |Like most Indian eras, the Śaka era uses expired, elapsed, or complete years, where a year must have elapsed before it can be counted. This is similar to the Western method of determining a person's age, whose first year must have been completed before that person reaches one year old. The uncounted first year of the era is numbered as year zero. This differs from Western eras which use current years.<ref name=Report>{{citation |author=Government of India |title=Report of the Calendar Reform Committee |chapter=The Saka Era |chapter-url=https://dspace.gipe.ac.in/xmlui/handle/10973/39692 |year=1955 |pages=255–256|publisher=Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi }}</ref>}} of which corresponds to Julian year 78. 

The era has been widely used in different regions of the [[Earth:Indian subcontinent|Indian subcontinent]] as well as in [[Place:Southeast Asia|Southeast Asia]]. According to the Government of India, it is referred as the '''Shalivahana Era''' (IAST: '''Śālivāhana''').

==History==
[[File:Nepal30005a.JPG|thumb|250px|Mohar of Gorkhali king Prithvi Narayan Shah dated Shaka era 1685 (AD 1763)]]The origin of the Shaka era is highly controversial.{{sfn|Richard Salomon|1998|p=182–184}} There are two Shaka era systems in scholarly use, one is called ''Old Shaka Era'', whose epoch is uncertain, probably sometime in the 1st millennium BCE because ancient Buddhist and Jaina inscriptions and texts use it, but this is a subject of dispute among scholars. The other is called ''Saka Era of 78 CE'', or simply ''Saka Era'', a system that is common in epigraphic evidence from southern India. A parallel northern India system is the ''Vikrama Era'', which is used by the Vikrami calendar linked to Vikramaditya.{{sfn|Richard Salomon|1998|p=181–183}}

The beginning of the Shaka era is now widely equated to the ascension of Indo-Scythian king Chashtana in 78 CE.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=efaOR_-YsIcC&pg=PA69 |title=Between the Empires : Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE: Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE |editor=Patrick Olivelle |chapter=Numismatics and History: The Maurya-Gupta interlude in the Gangetic Plains |author=Shailendra Bhandare |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |isbn=9780199775071 |page=69 }}</ref> His inscriptions, dated to the years 11 and 52, have been found at Andhau in Kutch region. These years are interpreted as Shaka years 11 (89 CE) and 52 (130 CE).<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QwkOdPtZmVcC&pg=PA193 |title=Script and Image: Papers on Art and Epigraphy |editor1=Adalbert J. Gail |editor2=Gerd J. R. Mevissen |editor3=Richard Salomon |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |year=2006 |page=193 |isbn=9788120829442 }}</ref> A previously more common view was that the beginning of the Shaka era corresponds to the ascension of Kanishka I in 78 CE.{{sfn|Richard Salomon|1998|p=182–184}} However, the latest research by Henry Falk indicated that Kanishka ascended the throne in 127 CE.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lKJyCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 |title=Greek Gods in the East |author=Ladislav Stančo |publisher= Karolinum Press |year=2012 |page=18 |isbn=9788024620459 }}</ref> Moreover, Kanishka was not a Shaka, but a Kushana ruler.<ref name="KCS_1992">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0UA4rkm9MgkC&pg=PA135 |title=Foreign Influence on Ancient India |author=Krishna Chandra Sagar |publisher=Northern Book Centre |year=1992 |isbn=9788172110284 |pages=135–136 }}</ref> Other historical candidates have included rulers such as Vima Kadphises, Vonones, and Nahapana.<ref name="KCS_1992"/>

According to historian Dineshchandra Sircar, the historically inaccurate notion of "Shalivahana era" appears to be based on the victory of the Satavahana ruler Gautamiputra Satakarni over some Shaka (Western Kshatrapa) kings. Sircar also suggested that the association of the northern king Vikramaditya with Vikrama era might have led the southern scholars to fabricate a similar legend.<ref name="DCS_1965">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hXMB3649biQC&pg=PA262 |title=Indian Epigraphy |author=D. C. Sircar |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |year=1965 |pages=262–266 |isbn=9788120811669 }}</ref> Another similar account claims that the emperor Shalivahana,<ref>{{cite book|author=kamlesh kapur |title= History of Ancient India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9ic4BjWFmNIC&q=shalivahan+ujjain&pg=PA321  |year=2010|publisher= Sterling Publishers Pvt Ltd |page=321|isbn=978-81-207-5212-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=RajendraSingh Kushwaha|title=Glimpses of Bhartiya History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EDZuAAAAMAAJ&q=shalivahan |year=2003|publisher= Ocean books|page=184|isbn=9788188322404 }}</ref> grandson of legendary emperor Vikramaditya defeated the Shakas in 78 CE, and the Shaka era marks the day of this conquest. This legend has been mentioned in the writings of Brahmagupta (7th century CE), [[Biography:Al-Biruni|Al-Biruni]] (973–1048 CE), and others. However, it is an obvious fabrication.{{sfn|Richard Salomon|1998|p=182–184}} Over time, the word "Shaka" became generic, and came to be mean "an era"; the era thus came to be known as "Shalivahana Shaka".<ref>{{cite book |author=P. V. Jagadisa Ayyar |title=South Indian Shrines: Illustrated |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NLSGFW1uZboC&pg=PA80 |year=1982 |publisher=Asian Educational Services |isbn=978-81-206-0151-2 |pages=80–81 }}</ref>

==Usage==

The earliest known users of the era are the Western Satraps, the Shaka (Indo-Scythian) rulers of Ujjain. From the reign of Rudrasimha I (178–197), they recorded the date of minting of their coins in the Shaka era,  usually written on the obverse behind the king's head in [[Brahmi numerals]].<ref>Rapson, "A Catalogue of Indian coins in the British Museum. Andhras etc." p. CCVIII</ref>

The use of the calendar era survived into the Gupta period and became part of [[Religion:Hinduism|Hindu]] tradition following the decline of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent. It was in widespread use by the 6th to 7th centuries, e.g. in the works of Varāhamihira and Brahmagupta, and by the 7th century also appears in epigraphy in Hindu Southeast Asia.

The calendar era remained in use in India and Southeast Asia throughout the medieval period, the main alternative era in traditional Hindu timekeeping being the [[History:Vikram Samvat|Vikram Samvat]] era (56 BC). It was used by Javanese courts until 1633, when it was replaced by Anno Javanico, a hybrid Javanese-Islamic system.<ref>{{Cite book | isbn = 9780804721950 | last = Ricklefs | first = Merle Calvin | title = A history of modern Indonesia since c. 1300 | year = 1993 | publisher = Stanford University Press and Macmillans | edition = 2nd |pages=5 and 46}}</ref> It was adopted as the era of the Indian national calendar (also known as "Śaka calendar") in 1957.

The Shaka epoch is the [[Astronomy:March equinox|vernal equinox]] of the year AD 78. The year of the official Shaka Calendar is tied to the [[Gregorian calendar|Gregorian date]] of 22 March every year, except in Gregorian leap years when it starts on 21 March. The Lunisolar Shalivaahana Saka continues to be used widely in Southern and Western India for many religious and some secular purposes such as sowing and agriculture.

==See also==
* [[History:Vikram Samvat|Vikram Samvat]]
* Indian national calendar
* [[Gregorian calendar]]

==References==
===Citations===
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===Sources===
{{ref begin}}
* {{cite book|author=Richard Salomon|title=Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the other Indo-Aryan Languages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XYrG07qQDxkC&pg=PA181|year=1998|publisher=[[Organization:Oxford University Press|Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0-19-535666-3}}
{{ref end}}

{{ref begin}}
* {{cite book|author=RajendraSingh Kushwaha|title=Glimpses of Bhartiya History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EDZuAAAAMAAJ&q=shalivahan|year=2003|publisher= Ocean books|page=184|isbn=9788188322404 }}
{{ref end}}{{Calendars}}
[[Category:Calendar eras]]

{{Sourceattribution|Shaka era}}