142 



the religious symbols worked into the skin of their arms 

 is that of the chank (Thurston, VII., 10). 



(c) The mendicant's conch. 



Beggars throughout India occasionally use the chank 

 shell as a musical instrument, and with certain castes of 

 religious mendicants it is an essential part of their pro- 

 fessional paraphernalia, so much so that a Tamil proverb 

 likens things in continual association to "the breech of 

 the chank and the mouth of the mendicant." 



The Dasari, who belongs to a caste of Vaishnavite 

 mendicants well represented In the Madras Presidency, 

 is often seen in North Arcot and the Southern Deccan, 

 announcing his arrival in a village by blasts on the 

 chank-shell which in that part of the country is one of 

 his five insignia. In Telugu districts the Dasaris are 

 more secular and less religious, and the caste is known 

 as Sanku Dasari or vulgarly Sanku jadi, the chank-blow- 

 ing caste. 



A mendicant's conch sometimes has the apical orifice 

 mounted in brass ; temple conchs are usually without 

 any ornamentation, but the Udipi temple owns one very 

 handsomely mounted in brass and this is sounded when- 

 ever the god (Krishna) is carried in procession in the 

 temple car (PI. XVTL, fig. i). 



{d) Dedication of temples and houses. 



Wherever a new temple is built, or when a new 

 shrine or god is established and added to the number 

 already there, its dedicatory ceremonies include as one 

 of the most important a special libation to the god from 

 the mouths of 108 chanks, or better still, from 1,008 

 chanks if so many can be afforded, filled with water and 

 flowers. 



The buildino- of an ordinarv house in the Tamil 

 country must also have its ceremonial dedication at the 

 time the foundation trenches are dug, though among low 

 caste people the rite consists merely of a superstitious 

 act to ensure good luck or to baulk the evil eye. It is 

 carried out with the help of the sacred chank which thus 

 is seen to touch the lives of the people at every point 

 from the cradle to the grave. Before a single stone in 

 the foundation is laid, the ceremony is carried out on 

 a day carefully chosen as being highly auspicious. A 



