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Introduction
IXC
stand out a few isolated blocks of hill, 500 to 800 feet high, of which one peak, about a mile west of the city, is crowned by the shrine of Chāmundā the Srī or Luck of Bhinnamāla. From a distance the present Bhinnamāla shows few traces of being the site of an ancient capital. Its 1500 houses cover the gentle slope of an artificial mound the level of their roofs broken by the spires of four Jain temples and by the ruined state office at the south end of the mound. Closer at hand the number and the size of old stone - stripped tank and fortification-mounts and the large areas honeycombed by the diggers for bricks show that the site of the present Bhinmal was once the centre of a great and widespread city.” (B, G, Vol. I, p. 449.)
For Şrīmāla we are fortunate in possessing another important source of information viz. Srīmālamāhātmya or S. Purāņa.+ This Purāņa, in a legendary form, gives much interesting information about the city of Srīmāla. A brief summary of this account will give some idea of its historical importance.
The site which ultimately became known as Şrimála was in the beginning known as Gautamāşramathe hermitage of the sage Gautama. Gautama was asked
+ According to some these two are different works. Mr. Jackson takes this Purāņa to be four hundred years old. We gather from the S. Purana that Gautama created 84 Jaina gachchhas out of which Tapa-gachchha was the principal (A. 74 v. 54.). Tapa-gachchha was started in the year V. S. 1285-1229 A. D. The mention of eighty four gachchhas indicates a still later date. See the Jaina S. S. Vol I No. 3 p. 39. As in the case of other Purāļas, however, information contained in this also may be much older than the final redaction of the Parāņa.
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