I04 



the widely spread Kochh tribe in their two principal 

 sub-divisions of Rajbansi and Paliya. It is largely to 

 supply the women of this tribe with their characteristic 

 ornaments that the chank bangle workshops in Dinajpur 

 and Rangpur exist as in these districts the tribe has its 

 chief settlement with an approximate total of one million 

 individuals. Kuch Behar and Jalpaiguri account for 

 another half million, while considerable numbers are 

 found also in Purnia, Maldah, the Darjeeling Terai, 

 Bogra, Murshidabad, Nadiya and Dacca. The Rajbansi 

 and Paliya gauntlets are composed usually of ten sepa- 

 rate bangles. As the wearers belong largely to the 

 labouring and ao^ricultural classes, the banoles forminof 

 these gauntlets are broad and thick, frequently without 

 any ornament whatever ; where decoration is attempted, 

 it consists of simple line patterns made of shallow 

 groovings which impair very little the strength of the 

 bangle and yet are very effective and elegant (Text-figure 

 2). Neither are they usually polished, hence dead shells 

 from Jaffna are largely employed in this manufacture, 

 although inferior shells of the better qualities from the 

 Indian side are also extensively made use of. 



Text-figure 2. 



GaUXTLKT pattern of COMI'ODiM) BRACELET WORN BY PaLIYA WOMEN, BENGAL 



