HORNELL THE INDIAN CONCH 33 



for the funeral including the palanquin required for the conveyance of the corpse to the 

 cremation ground. At the funeral, the Panisavan follows the corpse, blowing his conch. 

 When the son goes round the corpse with a pot of water, the Panisavan accompanies 

 him sounding his conch the while. On the last day of the death ceremonies (Karmand- 

 hiram) the Pansivan should also be present and blow his conch especially when the tali 

 is removed from the widow's neck. (Thurston, VI, p. 56.) 



The insignia of the Panisavans are the chank and the tharai, a long straight trumpet. 



In Coimbatore district, the duty of sounding the death conch belongs to the 

 members of an important sub-division of Paraiyans, called on this account, Sankhu 

 Paraiyan. (Thurston, VI, p. 81.) In Travancore when a headman or kaikkaran of 

 the Paraiyans settled there happens to die, a chank-shell is buried with the corpse. 

 (Thurston, VI, p. 134.) 



The chank sometimes has a place in the death ceremonies of castes which are not 

 Hinduised. Thus among the Cherumans of Malabar and Cochin, a caste of agricultural 

 serfs, according to Mr. Ananthakrishna Aiyar (Thurston, II, p. 81.), " The son or nephew 

 is the chief mourner, who erects a mound of earth on the south side of the hut, and 

 uses it as a place of worship. For seven days, both morning and evening, he 

 prostrates himself before it, and sprinkles the water of a tender coconut on it. On the 

 eighth day, his relatives, friends, the Vallon, and the devil-driver assemble together. 

 The devil-driver turns round and blows his conch, and finds out the position of the ghost, 

 whether it has taken up its abode in the mound, or is kept under restraint by some deity. 

 Should the latter be the case, the ceremony of deliverance has to be performed, after 

 which the spirit is set up as a household deity." 



How far the conch is used in funeral rites outside the Madras Presidency, I am not 

 in a position to say, except in regard to Thibet, where as already incidentally mentioned, 

 it is a custom to sound it as the body of a monk or a nun is being conveyed from the 

 place where death occurred. 



(g) TOTEMS. 



Totems as the distinctive signs of exogamous septs must have been at one time 

 universal among tribes of Dravidian origin. To-day a well developed totemistic system 

 characterises the tribal organisation of the Santals and Oraons who retain languages 

 distinct from those of the surrounding peoples, know nothing of the caste system, and 

 who continue to worship non-Aryan gods. Among the Santals 91 septs are known, 

 and one of these is known as Sankh. The members of this sept may not cut, burn, 

 nor use the shell, nor may the women of this sept wear it in personal adornment. 



Above these still primitive tribes and between them and the fully Hinduised peoples 

 who are split up into castes, are a large number of partially Hinduised tribes which 

 in many cases show distinct traces of a totemistic organisation. Among these the 



c 



