HORNELL THE INDIAN CONCH 63 



This was found on the surface in an open space within the present village. Time did 

 not allow me to prosecute a detailed search, but in my own mind the single fragment 

 found is conclusive evidence of the industry having once been located here. No shell 

 cutting of any description is carried on anywhere in this neighbourhood. 



Again, at Tuticorin, I have found a sawn and hammered shoulder-piece of typical 

 form, hence as the three discoveries were all made at places which in turn have been the 

 head-quarters of the chank-fishery, I am fully convinced that at all three, chank-bangle 

 workshops formerly existed, to treat on the spot this product of the neighbouring sea. 

 Why the seat of the bangle-cutting trade became transferred or limited to Bengal is 

 obscure, and may never be satisfactorily elucidated ; I am, however, inclined to suggest 

 the hypothesis that the decay of the industry in Tinnevelly may have been consequent 

 upon the Muhammadan invasion. The date of the passing away of the chank-cutting 

 industry I am inclined to put tentatively at about the fourteenth century, a time which 

 marks the close of unchallenged Hindu supremacy in the south, the spoliation of the 

 vast riches of the Pandyan cities by the Moslem and the heyday of Arab sea-power on 

 this part of the Indian coast. With the depression and decay entailed by the loot and 

 ruin of their enormously wealthy temples and long prosperous cities by the invaders 

 under Malik Kafur and his lieutenants it is far from improbable that the particular 

 trade here referred to became disorganised within the Pandyan realm and forced into a 

 different channel, the whole of the shells being exported to Bengal to be cut there instead 

 of being treated locally at the seat of the fishery. 



It is also noteworthy that the huge funeral urns found in tumuli of the Tambraparni 

 valley (at Adichanallur) have yielded a few fragments of working sections cut from 

 chank shells, associated in the urns with beautifully formed bronze utensils, iron weapons 

 and implements and gold fillets. So old are these tumuli that they are classed as 

 prehistoric though it is obvious that the people of those days were skilful artizans in 

 gold, bronze, and iron and must have been contemporaries of historic periods in the 

 story of Egypt and Mesopotamia. 



In this connection, as bearing upon the antiquity of the trade connections between 

 India and Persia, some interesting exhibits are to be seen in the Louvre, Paris ; the most 

 noteworthy is a chank-shell cup, probably used in libations, found by the Mission 

 Dieulafoy in the ruins of Susa. It measures 6| inches in length and has been longitu- 

 dinally bisected a little to one side of the median line, the larger portion being retained 

 to form the cup. The columella has been cut out and the result gives a very serviceable 

 form of spouted cup. It is classed as of Acheemenid age say circa 500 B.C. From the 

 same ruins the Mission de Morgan brought back a fragment of a large chank bangle 

 nearly one inch wide (No. A7532) roughly ground to a triangular ridge pattern in section 

 and with a rough < mark engraved at one side. 



Again the Fouilles de Tello yielded to the Mission de Sarzec a number of perforated 

 chank-shell fragments sometimes very finely engraved ; one in particular (No. 221) 



