lOI 



as is still the usual habit of country people of this class 

 in Bengal. 



[g) The castes and tribes who use chank bangles, 



(i) In 'Northern India. 



(2) In the Madras Presidency. 



\y\) In Noj'thern India. — Although evidence is strong 

 in favour of the belief that the custom of wearing chank 

 bracelets was in old times prevalent throughout the 

 length and breadth of India, more especially in the 

 Tamil country, in the Deccan, in Kathiawar, Gujarat, 

 and Bengal, at the present day only in Bengal, the 

 adjacent hill regions to the west, north, and east and in 

 a few Tamil-speaking districts in the extreme south 

 of India, does the custom continue to be widely observed 

 and of notable social importance. 



In Bengal and wherever in the adjoining Provinces 

 of Assam, behar and Orissa there are colonies of the 

 Bengali race, every married woman of all castes which 

 are thoroughly Hinduised is bound to possess a pair of 

 chank bangles lacquered in vermilion as one of the 

 visible tokens of her married state ; the red sankha or 



TEXT-FIOrRK I. 



miimiininiiimTTTTTT 



Edge and side views of a Bengal marriage bangle to shqw 



THE ornamentation IN YELLOW UPON A RED LACQUERED 



GROUND. From Pakn \. Bengal. X 2. 



