Salivahana

Shalivahana (IAST: Śālivāhana) was a legendary emperor of ancient India, who is said to have ruled from Pratishthana (present-day Paithan, Maharashtra). He is believed to be based on a Satavahana king (or kings).

There are several contradictory legends about him. Most legends associate him with another legendary emperor, Vikramaditya of Ujjain, in some way. In some legends, he is presented as an enemy of Vikramaditya; in other legends, he is named as a grandson of Vikramaditya; and in a few legends, the title Vikramaditya is applied to the ruler of Pratishthana. According to some historically inaccurate legends, his birth or one of his battle victories marked the beginning of the Shalivahana calendar era, which is another name for the Saka era.

Legends

Viracharita

Ananta's heroic poem Viracharita (12th century CE) mentions Shalivahana as a rival of the king Vikramaditya of Ujjain. According to it, Shalivahana defeated and killed Vikramaditya, and then ruled from Pratishthana. Shudraka was a close associate of Shalivahana and his son Shakti Kumara. Later, Shudraka allied with Vikramaditya's successors and defeated Shakti Kumara. This legend is full of mythological stories.

Bhavishya Purana

Paramara-era legends associate the Paramara rulers with legendary kings, in order to enhance the Paramara imperial claims. In the Bhavishya Purana, the Paramara king Bhoja is described as a descendant of Shalivahana, who is named as a grandson of Vikramaditya. According to the text (3.1.6.45-7.4), the first Paramara king was Pramara, born from a fire pit at Mount Abu (thus belonging to the Agnivansha). Vikramaditya, Shalivahana, and Bhoja are described as the descendants of Pramara, and thus, members of the Paramara dynasty.

Bhavishya Purana mentions that Vikramaditya ruled Bharatavarsha (India) bounded by Indus River in the west, Badaristhana (Badrinath) in the north, Kapila in the east, and Setubandha (Rameswaram) in the south. A hundred years after his death, many languages and many religions had developed in the 18 kingdoms of the Aryadesha (country of the Aryas). When the outsiders such as the Śakas heard about the destruction of dharma (righteousness, law and order) in Aryadesha, they raided the country by crossing the Indus and the Himalayas. They plundered Aryas and returned to their countries with the wives of the Aryas. Shalivahana, the grandson of Vikramaditya, then subjugated the Śakas and other barbarians. He defined the maryada to distinguish the Aryans from the mlecchas, and established Indus as the border between the Aryan lands and the land of the mlecchas.

Shalivahana was born in Ayodhya, in a potter's house, by the grace of Shesha. When he grew up, he became a king and defeated Vikramaditya, marking the beginning of the Shalivahana calendar era. Shalivahana was an alien Nastika Shramana (possibly a Jain), and persecuted all those who refused to convert to his faith. He revoked all the privileges that the Hindus had received from Vikramaditya. The non-Shramana ascetics started retiring to wilderness, and prayed to Shiva and Vishnu to stop the new king's atrocities. According to D. C. Sircar, the legendary "Shalivahana" was based on the exploits of multiple Satavahana kings; the legendary Vikramaditya was also based on multiple kings, and the distinction between these individual kings was lost over time. He believes the historically inaccurate notion that the "Shalivahana era" was based on the victory of the Satavahana ruler Gautamiputra Satakarni over some Saka (Western Kshatrapa) kings.

Literary works such as Prabodha Chintamani and Chaturavinshati Prabandha suggest that Shalivahana composed 400,000 gathas (single-verse poems). Gatha Saptashati, compiled by the Satvahana king Hāla, contains 700 verses in Maharashtri Prakrit. For this reason, Hāla is identified as Shalivahana. Although Jain chroniclers claim that he was a Jain, this does not appear to be correct, as the work invokes Shiva. Kathasaritsagara (based on the now-lost Brihatkatha) also contains some legends about a king named Satavahana, but this king is obviously different from Hāla.