Note 22 — BHINMÁL.

The angry Sindh Bráhmans in their own country worshipped the Sea. And at their request Samudra sent the demon Sarika to ruin Shrimál. Sarika carried off the marriageable Bráhman girls. And the Bráhmans finding no one to protect them withdrew to Ábu. Shrimál became waste and the dwellings ruins.22 When Shrimál had long lain waste a king named Shripunj, according to one account suffering from worms, according to another account stricken with leprosy, came to the Brahmakund to the south of the city and was cleansed.23 Thankful at heart Shripunj collected Bráhmans and restored Shrimála and at the Brahmakund built a temple of Chandish Mahádev. When they heard that the Shrimál Bráhmans had returned to their old city and were prospering the Appendix III. Bhinmál. Legends. Bráhmans of Sindh once more sent Sarika to carry away their marriageable daughters. One girl as she was being haled away called on her house goddess and Sarika was spell-bound to the spot. King Shripunj came up and was about to slay Sarika with an arrow when Sarika said Do not kill me. Make some provision for my food and I will henceforth guard your Bráhmans. The king asked her what she required. Sarika said Let your Bráhmans at their weddings give a dinner in my honour and let them also marry their daughters in unwashed clothes. If they follow these two rules I will protect them. The king agreed and gave Sarika leave to go. Sarika could not move. While the king wondered the home-goddess of the maiden appeared and told the king she had stopped the fiend. Truly said the king you are the rightful guardian. But Sarika is not ill disposed let her go. On this Sarika fled to Sindh. And in her honour the people both of Shrimál and of Jodhpur still marry their daughters in unwashed clothes.24 The Bráhman girls whom Sarika had carried off had been placed in charge of the snake Kankal lord of the under world. The Bráhmans found this out and Kankal agreed to restore the girls if the Bráhmans would worship snakes or nágs at the beginning of their shrádh or after-death ceremonies. Since that time the Shrimális set up the image of a Nág when they perform death rites. Other legends relating to the building of the Jagsvámi or Sun temple, to the temple of Chandish Mahádev near the Brahmakund,25 and to the making of the Jaikop lake are given above. The dates preserved by local tradition are S. 222 (a.d. 166) the building of the first temple of the Sun; S. 265 (a.d. 209) a destructive attack on the city; S. 494 (a.d. 438) a second sack by a Rákshasa; S. 700 (a.d. 644) a re-building; S. 900 (a.d. 844) a third destruction; S. 955 (a.d. 899) a new restoration followed by a period of prosperity which lasted till the beginning of the fourteenth century.