75 



as a manufacturing- centre ; large numbers of bangles 

 have beenproduced there of late years. So far, however, 

 its trade is a low-grade one dealing chiefly with the poor 

 quality sub-fossil shells shipped annually in great quan- 

 tities from Jaffna in the north of Ceylon. These cheap 

 shells are utilized in the production of the commonest 

 grades of bangles. With a few exceptions the patterns 

 followed are crude, the workmanship rough and without 

 regard to finish, deficiencies matched by the bad taste 

 and wretched execution characterizing the lacquered 

 colouration when present. 



Nadia is a third centre where chank shells are largely 

 cut up both for conversion locally into bangles and for 

 distribution to bangle-workers in other centres. Other 

 bangle-factories are situated in the districts of Sylhet in 

 Assam, Mymensingh, Chittagong, Pabna, Rungpur, 

 Dinajpur, Murshedabad, Jessore, Kulna, Burdwan, Ban- 

 kura and Balasore, showing a wide-spread distribution 

 throughout Bengal. Many factory groups are however 

 of small numerical importance, often consisting of no 

 more than three or four families. 



My experience generally has been that the chank- 

 worker's hamlets are situated as a rule in. outlying villa- 

 ges served by the worst possible of roads. Haragash in 

 the Rangpur district is a typical instance. This large 

 village, a long straggling collection of hamlets covering 

 a considerable area, lies about eleven miles outside of the 

 district town of Rangpur. The special hamlet inhabited 

 by the bangle-workers is known in consequence as 

 Shakhari Para ; out of a total of about 90 workpeople, 

 some JO are Vaisya Shakharis, the remainder being 

 Muhammadans. There are four principal employers of 

 labour ; of these three have intimate business relations 

 with Dacca houses importing therefrom all the bangle- 

 sections they require ; the fourth employer obtains his 

 requirements from Murshedabad and Nadia where he is 

 said to have factories for the sawing of the shells into 

 working circlets. No sectioning of shells is done in 

 Haragash, where work is confined to rubbing dow^n the 

 rough sawn sections to the required degree and to 

 incising standard patterns with the aid of tiles and small 

 handsaws. Distribution of the finished products is made 



