io6 



a matter of great significance as well as of much diffi- 

 culty, for whereas the Kochh people are professed 

 Hindus, the Santals hold the animistic beliefs characte- 

 ristic of Non-Hinduised Dravidians. However Oldham 

 as quoted by Risley (I, p. 492) states that ''the adhesion 

 of the Kochh tribe to Hinduism is comparatively recent 

 as shown by their own customs as regards burial, food 

 and marriage." 



The section of the Kurmi caste found in Chota 

 Nag-pore and Orissa also wear chank bangles. In view 

 of what has been said above in regard to the Dravidian 

 origin of the Kochhs and Santals, it is of importance to 

 find that Risley (I, p. 530) considers this territorial 

 section of the caste as undoubtedlv Dravidian, as shown 

 by their physical characteristics, religious beliefs and 

 social customs. In appearance, he says that in Munbhum 

 and the north of Orissa, it is difficult to distinguish a 

 Kurmi from a Bhumij or a Santal. In their religion the 

 animistic beliefs characteristic of the Dravidian races 

 are overlaid by the thinnest veneer of conventional 

 Hinduism, and the vague shapes of ghosts and demons 

 who haunt the jungles and the rocks are the real powers 

 to whom the Kurmi looks for the ordering of his moral 

 and physical welfare. 



Alike with the Santals the internal structure of that 

 branch of the Kurmi caste living in Chota Nagpur and 

 Orissa is founded upon a distinct and well-defined tote- 

 mism in which a large proportion of the totems are still 

 capable of being identified. Risley (II, appendix, p. 88) 

 enumerates 60 totemistic sections or septs in this 

 caste, among which is one termed Sankhawar whose 

 members are prohibited from wearing chank shell 

 ornaments. Among the Santals, the place of this sept 

 is taken by one called Sankh, wherein all individuals are 

 forbidden, under pain of caste punishment, the use of 

 the chank shell in any form ; they may neither cut, burn, 

 nor use the shell, nor may the women of this sept use it 

 in personal adornment (I, p. xliii). 



The prevalence of the use of chank bangles among 

 these Dravidian races, the present animistic beliefs of 

 the Santals and Chota Nagpur Kurmis, and the com- 

 paratively recent renunciation of the same cult by the 

 great Kochh tribe, taken in conjunction with other facts 

 and especially with the widely spread archaeological 



