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thereafter. Thus it appears almost certain that the Simha era was established by the Caulukya conqueror of Sorath rather than by the local king of the Cūļāsamā dynasty.
This conclusion is confronted by one difficulty. It is obviously difficult to explain why the use of the Simha era remained confined to Sorath, if it was established by the Caulukya emperor Jayasimhadeva. Presumably, the Simha era was started by Jayasimhadeva to commemorate his conquest of Sorath and intended to be used especially in the newly conquered territory along with the Vikrama era which was commonly used in the Caulukya kingdom since long. In the concluding verse of the Sanskrit Dvyāśraya Kāvya43 Hemacandra remarks that King Kumāra pāla was inspired to start his own era by making the Earth (i, e. his kingdom) free from debt. A similar reference is made by Jayasimhasūri in his Kumārapāla-Bhūpāla Carita (V.S. 1301) in relation to King Simhavikrama represe. ted as an early ancestor of the Caulukya King Mūlarāja 144. Candraprabhasūri, too, makes a similar reference for King Vikramāditya in his Prabhāvakacarita.45 These references seem to imply that the king had to free his kingdom from debt before starting an era of his own.46 King Jayasimha is said to have freed the earth (i.e. his kingdom) from debt by means of Svarṇasiddhi, attained
43. XX, 102 44. I, 21 45. Jivadevasüriprabundha, verse 71 46. For the arrears of the previous era were not carried forward
into the accounts of the new era (R. C. Modi SDKMGSS. p. 75).
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