124 



heartened them for the fray by loud blasts on conch-horns. 

 Even in very recent days the chank's voice has called 

 our enemies to the attack, and this too by other foes than 

 Hindus. The graphic pen of Percival Landon in his 

 " Lhasa' — an account of the British Mission to Thibet 

 in 1903-4, in describing a night cannonade of the British 

 Commissioner's post outside of Gyantse by the ^J'hibe- 

 tans, paints a word picture worthy of quotation " As one 

 peers out into the warm night, a long monotone is 

 faintly droned out from the darkness ahead. It is one 

 of the huge conch shells in the jong and it may oniy 

 mean a call to prayer — the * hours ' of Lamaism are 

 unending — but as the moaning note persists softly and 

 steadily, a vivid speck of tiame stabs the darkness across 

 the river. A second later the report of the gun accom- 

 panies a prolonged ' the-e-es ' overhead." 



From the earliest times the conch has also been used 

 in India to call the people to their sacrifices and other 

 religious rites and as an instrument of invocation to call 

 the attention of the gods to the ceremonies to be 

 performed. 



With this intimate association with the chief 

 religious rites, the people gradually came to reverence 

 the instrument itself, and to adore and invoke it (see p. 

 133 for details) as is also done with regard to many 

 other instruments or articles of sacrifice in Hindu rites at 

 the present day ; these latter do not, however, appeal in 

 equal measure to the religious feelings of the multitude, 

 for around them have not been woven the myths and 

 legends pertaining to the chank. 



In the ceremonies attending the coronation of great 

 kings the chank naturally played a great part. At the 

 time when the Mahabharata was put into its present 

 form, this custom was fully developed to judge from the 

 description of the coronation of King Yudtiistira given 

 in the Shantiparwa of that epic. To quote from an 

 interesting summary by Rao Sahib P. B. Joshi * "Kings 

 of different countries, learned Brahmans and sages were 

 invited for the ceremony. A Vedi or sacrificial altar 

 was prepared. There were hroughx. S am id lias or pieces 

 of sacred wood, five kinds of sacred leaves, waters of the 



* The Tivies of India llluslrated Weekly, 20lh SciUcmbcr igi i. 



