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this priestly caste and in the Brahma Karma, the work 

 which sets forth in minute detail the order and phrasing 

 of the sacred rites of the Brahmans, the prayer to the 

 sacred chank may be translated as follows : — 



Takinof the chank in his hand the Brahman recites : 

 " At the mouth of this shell is the God of the Moon, on 

 its side is Varuna, on its back Prajapati, and on its apex, 

 the Ganges, the Sarasvati, and all the other sacred rivers 

 of the three worlds in which they make ablutions accord- 

 ino- to the command of Vasudeva.* In this chank is the 

 chief of the Brahmans (Brahmendra or Brahmanaspati). 

 This is why we must worship the sacred chank. Glory 

 to thee, sacred shell, blessed by all the gods, born in the 

 sea, and formerly held by Vishnu in his hand. We adore 

 the sacred chank and meditate upon it. May we be 

 filled with joy ! 



" I offer (to the chank) everything needful for wor- 

 ship — perfumes, rice and flowers." 



Here they make the sign of the chank, but Bourquin 

 (Annales du Musee Guimet, Vol. VII., p. 45), from whom 

 I quote, says he was never able to discover the manner 

 of makinof this sio-n and I have had a like ill-success. 



While the above is a portion of the liturgy which the 

 head of each Brahman family is theoretically bound to 

 recite daily, under present day conditions, this is impossi- 

 ble and in fact it is only on specially important puja or 

 holy days that even a greatly curtailed version of this 

 and the accompanying prayers is recited by the head of 

 the family, and this too only in thoroughly orthodox 

 families. The curtailed prayer usually runs " Oh, chank 

 shell, thou wast produced in the sea and art held by 

 Vishnu in his hand. Thou art worshipped by all the 

 gods. Receive my homage." 



In this connection an interesting chank legend centres 

 round the temple tank in Tirukalikundram, a holy 

 Saivite village in the Chingleput District, some '^'] miles 

 southward of Madras. The village munsiff, Mr. T. A. 

 Vedachala Gurukkal, to whom I am indebted for the 

 following particulars, states that once every twelve years 

 a chank rises to the surface of the large sacred batliing 

 tank called Sanku Theertham. Three days before this 



* One of the names of Krishna, 



