68 



(a) Preliminary. 



At the present day, chank cuttino-, save for some 

 insignificant work done in Kilakarai on the Ramnad 

 coast near Pamban, has lono- been a foro-otten art in the 

 south of India, in Kathiawar and in Gujarat. It flour- 

 ishes solely in Bengal and Assam, with its head-quarters 

 at Dacca. No fishery for chank shells exists off the 

 Bengal coast ; the industry depends entirely for an 

 adequate supply of the raw material upon imports 

 obtained by way of the wholesale market at Calcutta. 



The best quality of shells used in the trade comes 

 from the fishery carried on departmentally by the 

 Government of Madras off the coast of the Tinnevelly 

 district — a fact which makes an intimate knowledge of 

 the methods and trade customs both of the wholesale 

 merchants and of the cutters who convert the shells into 

 bracelets, a matter of considerable importance to the 

 Government named. In consequence of this I received 

 instructions in 19 lo from the Madras Government to 

 proceed to Bengal and there institute an enquiry into 

 the present condition and course of the trade in chank 

 shells. 



A tour through the two Bengals in September 19 10 

 was accordingly made ; the chief distributing centres were 

 visited, wholesalers and retail- buyers were interviewed, 

 and all the processes and variations of manufacture were 

 investigated at representative workshops in Dacca, 

 Dinajpur, Rangpur and other principal working centres. 

 In the following pages an endeavour will be made to 

 present the salient features of the present condition of the 

 trade — to give an account of the course of business from 

 the time the shells are exported from their various 

 districts of origin till they pass into the hands of the 

 workpeople ; an attempt will be made to trace the 

 principal enhancements of price as the trade filters 

 through the hands of the various middlemen and to 

 estimate the final (total) wholesale value of the finished 

 products in order that the great industrial importance of 

 the trade may be adequately realized. The technical 

 and artistic aspects of the industry will also receive due 

 attention, these sections beino- illustrated bv a series of 

 photographs depicting the various stages in the manufac- 

 ture and ornamentation of a chank bangle. 



