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Introduction)
mixture of one and the same style in most of the component parts of the two shrines. We have no record of the original carving etc., but before any repairs, a faithful record of the existing original should be maintained by us for future students of art and architecture of these wonderful shrines. It is also advisable to maintain a small museum of all the replaced parts in a special room attached to this group of shrines. Such a small local museum can preserye other antiquities which might be recoverd from this area in future. It can also develop into a local Museum of Antiquities and Natural Sciences from Mount Abu and its vicinity.
To a student of Sculptural Art in Western India, Ābu should have been the best field of research or exploration. Unfortunately, even though Ābu preserves quite an interest. ing number of specimens of earlier art of the post-Gupta period, they never attracted the attention of scholars of our age. As will be seen in the following pages, the story of Vimala's spreading coins on the ground to purchase land from Brāhmins for his new shrine, is reminiscent of the ancient Buddhist account of the Jetavana Vihāra, memorised in the famous relief plaque from Bhārhut and recorded in Buddhist works. Was the legend about Vimala a mere copy of the Buddhist legend without any historical basis ? An investigation in this direction led the present writer to the discovery of certain valuabļe older specimens of art at Ābu. The area just behind Vimala Vasahī is the site of the Kanyākumārī and Rasio Vālam sbrines along with a Vişhņu temple (Jagannātha temple as it is now called by some people). A little westward of these three shrines ase the ruins of an older Shaiva shrine, followed by open fields and again an old brick temple with later repairs in stone. This very extensive area was a once very flourishing. BrāhmanicalShaivite-site, Vimala Säha had te purchase land from the
