HORNELL THE INDIAN CONCH 19 



nations of Vishnu are also occasionally represented as holding a chank in the hand : 

 Matsya,in the form of a fish, Kurma the tortoise, Varaha the boar, and Narsingha the man- 

 lion, are avatars sometimes sculptured holding Vishnu's chank : more frequently Krishna 

 is thus depicted. Narayana, the god dwelling in the sun, another form of Vishnu, 

 is similarly represented in human form with a chank in one hand and a discus (chaki-am) 

 in the other. On rare occasions Siva is also depicted as holding a chank in one hand. 

 In all these instances the chank represented is of the sinistral or left-handed form, a 

 rarity so choice and valuable as to be worthy to form an adornment of a god. No 

 more fitting gift to a deity can be imagined ; as the symbol of the god who divides with 

 Siva the worship of the Hindu world, as a production of nature so scarce as to appear 

 once only in several millions of normally shaped shells and as an emblem of purity, 

 could Hindu find more fitting offering at the shrine of his god ? Thus it is that the pious 

 wealthy have from time to time dedicated these shells to favourite temples particularly 

 to those that are in high esteem at centres of Hindu pilgrimage. 



Chanks are held in special veneration at those shrines where the cult of Krishna is 

 the predominant feature of worship, and in those localities rendered sacred to Hindus 

 because of their reputed association with this deity while sojourning on earth. 



Chief among the former is the great religious centre of the Madhva sect at Udipi 

 in South Canara. There around a temple dedicated to Krishna are disposed eight mutts, 

 or religious colleges, whereof the priesthood is a peregrinating fraternity, who tour the 

 country to confirm in their faith the scattered members of their community a procedure 

 which consists in branding with hot irons the deity's symbols of the chank and the wheel 

 upon the arms of the faithful. 



Usually the priests of seven mutts are on tour ; the head of one mutt takes charge 

 in rotation of the Udipi temple and for a period of two years carries on the services 

 and provides the funds necessary for the lavish charity dispensed daily by the temple. 



The members of this sect have a great reputation for active piety and the priesthood 

 of each mutt vie with those of the others in collecting precious vessels for use in the service 

 of the deity. The sinistral chank is the principal of these, and so it comes about that 

 in the eight mutts at Udipi is gathered an unique collection of these rarities. During 

 a recent visit to this place the Swamiyar or high-priest was good enough to show me the 

 four which belong to his mutt the Puttige mutt. Of these, two were handsomely 

 mounted in richly chased gold, the others in silver. All were rather small in size and one 

 appeared to be of the sub-fossil description frequently found buried in muddy deposits 

 in shallow lagoons in the north of Ceylon. A census of the sinistral shells possessed by 

 the whole eight mutts was not possible, but from the information received from the high 

 priest there cannot be less than thirty of these shells in the town, allowing the low average 

 of three to each mutt and six for those possessed by wealthy Hindus who are not of the 

 priesthood. 



After Udipi, probably the largest number of sinistral chanks are to be found in the 



B 2 



