Risley (II, p. 221) they say that ujj to the time of AdisLr 

 they wore the Brahmanical thread, but were degraded by 

 him at the same time as the Subarnabaniks, because the 

 latter had cut to pieces a golden cow which the king- had 

 o-iven to certain Brahmans at the celebration of a special 

 'sacrifice. The better class men and especially those in 

 the Pabna and Dinajpur districts are now beginning to 

 re-assume the thread as may be seen upon reference to 

 plates IX and X. Sankharis have the Brahmanical 

 gotras and observe the same table of prohibited degrees 

 as the higher castes. In Dacca they are divided into 

 two sub-castes — Bara-Bhagiya or Bikrampur Sankhari 

 and Chota Bhagiya or Sunargaon Sankhari. The latter 

 are a comparatively small group, who work at carving 

 and polish'ng bangles, which they purchase ready cut — a 

 departure from traditional usage which may account for 

 their separation from the main body of the caste. In 

 other districts, owing possibly to the smallness of the 

 caste, no similar divisions seem to have been formed. 



The workers in Pabna district are also of the same 

 caste together with the descendants of a number of 

 chank-cutting families which have emigrated from Dacca 

 and Pabna from time to time to various other towns 

 scattered throuohout the two Bengals. Besides the 

 Vaisya Sankharis who are occupational chank-cutters 

 by caste, a large number of Muhammadans follow the 

 same trade. In several centres, they even outnumber 

 the Hindu workers and at Dinajpur for example, where- 

 as only four families of Vaisya Sankharis follow the 

 calling of their ancestors, from 80 to 100 Muhammadans 

 earn their living at this trade. 



Dacca, as in Tavernier's day (seventeenth century) 

 when it was the capital of Bengal, continues to be the 

 head-quarters of the chank-cutting trade, and the chief 

 mart for the purchase by dealers and hawkers of the 

 finished article. From Dacca also are exported to other 

 towns in Bengal large quantities of sawn shell sections 

 in the rough to be carved and finished locally. In 

 Dacca the shell-cutters' quarter, the Shakhari Bazaar, is 

 located in the heart of the city ; it consists in the main 

 of a long and narrow street, devoted exclusively to this 

 one trade. Usually the preliminary processes and the 



