44 



The reply of Nakkirar was " Chank-cutting is indeed 

 the calling of my caste ; of that I am not ashamed. 

 But of what caste is Sankara ? (one of the many names 

 of Siva.) We earn our liveHhood by cutting chanks ; 

 we do not live by begging as he did,"— an allusion to 

 the fable popularized by the Brahmans wherein Siva is 

 represented as a mendicant seeking alms with a skull in 

 his hand as begging bowl. 



U!E/SBLDJD<3' Qg^lT6Vr(^6V U(W^n(olXi £F/E16!T)S 



Luifi/B^ism'Q eviTipQeuir ubirQem SeinQu/rev 



Dharmi's description of a chank-cutter's trade is 

 wonderfully vivid in the original Tamil ; in a dozen words 

 he paints a realistic word-picture of a cutter's workshop 

 • — the men seated on the ground with the knees widely 

 spread and depressed outwards almost to the ground to 

 give free play to the great crescentic two-handled saw 

 monotonously droning a single note as it cuts its way 

 laboriously through the hard substance of the shell. 



Tradition has it that Nakkirar, the chank- cutter 

 President of the Sangam, was a Parawa by caste. It 

 would be most appropriate if this be correct as we have 

 already seen that at the beginning of the Christian era 

 chank fishing and chank cutting were among the import- 

 ant trades carried on in Korkai, the chief settlement of 

 the Parawas in early days. 



No Parawas to-day are engaged in chank cutting 

 although they still largely monopolize the shore industries 

 of Tinnevelly where they continue as from time imme- 

 morial to provide the contingent of divers required for 

 the exploitation of both the pearl and the chank fisheries 

 of the Gulf of Mannar. 



It is noteworthy that though their women do not now 

 wear chank bangles their children from four months to 

 about two years old are often given roughly-made chank 

 bracelets to wear in the belief that such will protect 

 them against the baleful influence of the evil eye, from 

 vomitino- and from a wastino- disease called c/iedz which 

 appears to be rickets and reputed to be caused by the 

 touch or near approach of a woman during her menses ! 

 This custom has now been abandoned or is perfunctorily 



