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Introduction
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come to Aộahilavāda, let us pause for a while to have a look at Bhinnamāla – which was, according to the Srimāla purana (Adhyāyas 72,75 ) the immediate source of men, money and culture of Aşahilavāda.
11 The importance of Bhinnamála or Srimāla in the history of Gujarat cannot be exaggerated. It was the first capital of Gurjaratrā-which means literally '(the land ) protected by the Gurjaras' and which is the sanskritised form of the Prākṣta word Gujjarattā from which the modern word Gujarāta is derived. In other words, it was the first capital city of the Gurjaras who gave this province its present name. And, even after it ceased to be the capital, it was the people who hailed from Srīmāla that mostly made the history of Gujarāta. To the present day most of the Hindu population (in which term I include the Jainas also ) of Gujarāt trace their origin to their connection with Şrīmāla and its suburbs.
The first authentic source of information that we have about the Gurjara kingdom and its capital Bhinnamāla is, again, from the travels of Yuan - Chang who seems to have come to this part about 641 A. D. He says as follows:
"Going north from the country of Valabhi 1800 li or so, we come to the kingdom of Kiu - che lo (Gujjara )x.
X Julien restored the Sanskļia dame of the country Kirche-lo as Gurjjara. Mr. Watters thought that the pilgrim probably transcribed a name like Guchala or Guchara' (p. 250). Col. J. W. Watson identified Pi-lo-mo-lo with Bhinnamála. Cunningham tells us that this city is exactly 300 miles to the north of the ruins of Valabhi' (p. ).
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