HORNELL THE INDIAN CONCH 55 



a section of the Lolo tribe, mountaineers living in the upper valley of the Mekong in 

 Yunnan, employing chank shell discs to ornament their Chinese caps. It may be 

 that these Lissus and cognate tribes represent those chank jewel wearers whom 

 Tavernier refers to as belonging to the kingdom of Siam. In this latter country at the 

 present day I know of no utilisation of chanks in personal adornment. 



The chank is one of the eight lucky signs recognised by Buddhists of the Northern 

 cult and as such is constantly reproduced in Buddhist ornamentation in Thibet and 

 Bhutan. 1 It may therefore be inferred that the use of it in personal adornment has 

 a like reason ; whether in the form of a bangle, a cap or a hair ornament, a necklace 

 or a breast disc, it is employed as a talisman to ensure good fortune, and possibly even 

 as an amulet against the evil eye, as is the chank shell placed on the forehead of draft 

 bulls in Southern India. 



(2) The Tribes and Castes which wear Chank Bangles in the South of India. 



In the Madras Presidency and the associated native States, the castes whose 

 women systematically wear chank bangles are few, and if we except the wandering 

 tribes of the Lambadis (or Brinjaris), Koravars and Kurivikkarans, the custom appears 

 confined to a sub-division of each caste or tribe. Whether it had a totemistic origin 

 and significance as it still has among non-Hinduised tribes in Bengal, Behar and Chota 

 Nagpur is not at present clear. If it had, the original tribal sept, usually exogamous, 

 has become changed to a caste sub-division, invariably endogamous. And whereas 

 among the septs of those animistic tribes in Northern India which are named after the 

 chank this shell is taboo with them, it forms the characteristic ornament of the women 

 of the caste sub -divisions named after it, in Southern India. 



Only in the Kongu country, which coincides roughly with the present inland districts 

 of Coimbatore and Salem, does the custom continue to flourish at all strongly. 

 Coimbatore is the great centre of the custom, for there the numbers of chank-bangle 

 wearers greatly exceed those found in any other district. The Collector reports eleven 

 castes and sub-divisions as following this custom, viz. : 



(1) Pala Vellalas. 



(2) Puluvans (so-called Puluva Vellalas). 



(3) Konga and Golla Idaiyans. 



(4) Konga Shanans. 



(5) Konga Vannans. 



(6) Thotti Chukkiliyans. 



(7) Sangu, Konga, Sangudu or Sanguvalai Paraiyans. 



(8) Thottiya Naiks. 



(9) Okkilians (not universal). 



(10) Kurumbars. 



(11) Lambadis in parts of Kollegal and Gobichettipalaiyam divisions. 



1 J. Claude White, " Sikhim and Bhutan," p. 46. London, 1909. 



