ii7 



PART III.— THE ROLE PLAYED BY THE 



CHANK IN INDIAN RELIGION 



AND LIFE. 



(i) LEGENDARY AND HISTORICAL. 



When and how the cult of the c hank as a reHgiou? 

 symbol originated in India are questions which go back 

 so far beyond any traditions now existing that the utmost 

 difficulty confronts us when we seek to find their solution. 

 One main fact alone seems certain and that is the non- 

 Aryan origin of this symbol. The Aryan-speaking 

 hordes which descended upon the Punjab through the 

 nortii-vvcst passes perhaps 2,000 years or more B.C., 

 certainly did not bring the custom with them. They, the 

 warrior jdoughmen and herdsmen of the plains of 

 Eastern Europe and Western Asia had never seen the 

 sea ; tliey knew not as yet the deep sonorous boom of the 

 snow-white chank — a note on a curved cattle-horn was 

 with them the signal between scattered bands, while 

 tneir hymns tell us that in music they used the drum, the 

 fiute and the lute. Vishnu, tne God whose emblems 

 include the chank, is barely mentioned in the Rig-V^eda 

 and the few Vedic hymns to him were probably com- 

 posed after long intercourse had been established with 

 the Dravidians, the chief race whom the invaders found 

 in possession of the new land. He is almost certainly 

 one of the gods borrowed from the indigenous people as 

 his complexion is characteristically represented as dark- 

 hued whenever his image is shown in colour. 



When the hungry swarms of Aryan tribesmen 

 descended upon north-west India, the whole land with the 

 exception of the north-east corner, was occupied by a 

 long-settled Dravidian population, split into many states 

 and tribes vastly differing in civilization. Many tribes, 

 particularly those living in the mountains and dense 

 forests and less accessible districts, were in the lowest 

 possible stage, naked savages living on fruits and small 

 game and maintaining a precarious defence against wild 

 beasts by means of rude stone weapons and cudgels. In 

 the south, particularly in the maritime districts, a high 

 Civilization developed at a comparatively early date and 



