41 



PART II.— THE CHANK BANGLE INDUSTRY- 

 ITS ANTIQUITY AND PRESENT 

 CONDITION. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



At the present day the general use of bangles made 

 from sections sawn from the shell of the sacred Indian 

 chank or conch ( Ttirbinella pyrttm^lAnn.) is confined to the 

 people of Bengal and of certain of the adjacent provinces. 

 In India proper the custom does not appear to range 

 further west than Behar, nor further south than Orissa. 

 On the north and east the limits are less deterrriinate as 

 there the people are wilder and the means of obtaining 

 articles of ornament difficult and uncertain. We may 

 say however that throughout Thibet from Ladakh in 

 Kashmiri Thibet to the Kham country in the east, the 

 women, whenever their means and opportunities permit, 

 wear heavy and coarsely made bangles manufactured 

 from this shell. In Assam and Bhutan the same custom 

 is observable, but owing to the diversity in origin and 

 to the differences in the manners of the tribes in this 

 region, the custom is sporadic ; in one valley all the 

 women may wear these ornaments ; in the next valley or 

 in the adjacent hill villages none may be seen. 



The women of Bengali race are the main observers 

 of this practice and were the fashion of wearing chank 

 bangles to become c>bsolete among them, the industry 

 would languish and probably soon die out. It is they 

 alone who provide a steady market for richly carved and 

 highly polished chank bangles ; their humble sisters 

 among the Santals, Kochhi, Thibetans, and Maghs are 

 satisfied with plain or rudely carved bangles without 

 polish — they prefer strength and quantity to ornamental 

 designs and fine finish. 



The industry of bangle cutting, as will be detailed in 

 the following paper, is located at the present day almost 

 entirely in Bengal. Dacca is the chief centre of the 

 manufacturing trade, Calcutta the emporium where the 

 raw material is gathered from the different chank fisheries 

 in the south of India and in Ceylon and whence the 

 shells are distributed to Dacca and numerous local 

 centres scattered throughout the length and breadth of 

 Bengal. 



