HORNELL THE INDIAN CONCH 15 



remote point of Hinduism, as well as his first combat with him in the Jumna, we 

 have but the continuance of the same sectarian warfare, in which Crishna was in this 

 instance successful, driving them before him both in the north of India and here : thus, 

 his title of Rinchar was given on his defeat by Jarasindha, the King of Magadha, of 

 the heretical faith, and at length these religious and civil conflicts led to his death, 

 and the dispersion of the Yadu race of which he was the chief support. These Yadus, 

 I surmise to have been all originally Budhists, and of Indo-Getic origin, as their 

 habits of polyandrism alone would almost demonstrate ; and when we find the best- 

 informed of the Jains assuring us that Nemnat'h, the twenty-second Budha, was not 

 only Yadu, but the near kinsman of Crishna, all doubt is at an end ; and I am 

 strongly inclined to pronounce decidedly, what I have before only suggested, that the 

 Yadus are the Yute, or ancient Getes of the Jaxartes, amongst whom, according to 

 Professor Newmann from Chinese authorities, one of the Shamanean sages sprung, 

 eight hundred years before Christ. Both Nemnat'h and Sham-nat'h have the same 

 personal epithets, derived from their dark complexions, the first being familiarly called 

 Arishta-Nemi, ' the black Nemi/ the other Sham and Crishna, both also meaning 

 ' dark-coloured ' ; and when this is not only confirmed by tradition, but the shrine of 

 Budha itself is yet preserved within that of Crishna at Dwarica we have no reason to 

 question that his faith, prior to his own deification, was that of Budha." 



Always is Krishna's chank represented as a sinistral abnormality, and legend pic- 

 tures to the mind of the devout Hindu every shell of this rare form when alive, as a 

 marvellous production receiving the homage of thousands of chanks of ordinary form, 

 which crowd around it on all sides. Another myth is related by Baldseus, the chaplain 

 to the Dutch forces which wrested Ceylon from the Portuguese, to the effect that Garuda, 

 the eagle, vehicle or attendant (almost certainly the hawk-headed deity of Assyria) 

 of Vishnu flew in all haste to Brahma and brought to Krishna " the chianko or kink- 

 horn twisted to the right." 1 Vishnu derives several of his alternative names from his 

 chank symbol, as Chankapani, the " chank-armed," and Chankamenthi, the " chank- 

 bearer." 



Krishna, when represented as a herdsman under the form of Govinda or Gopala, 

 usually bears a conch in his hand and possibly the origin of this may be sought in the 

 use a herdsman may make of it to call together his scattered charge just as the shepherds 

 of Corsica and Sardinia at the present day use a great Triton shell (Tritonium nodu- 

 liferum) for a like purpose. 



A curious and most significant fact is that the twenty -second Tirthankar of the Jains, 

 Nemi or Nemnath, who, legend says, was the son of King Samudravijaya of the race 



1 With the contradiction which exists between East and West in so many matters, the abnormal 

 twist in these shells is termed the left-handed or sinistral by Europeans, whereas Indians term it right- 

 handed. They view it from the mouth end, we from the apex, and accordingly confusion is frequent 

 in conversation on this subject with Indians. 



