147 



Accordino- to Ananthakrishna Ayyar (Thurston, V^II, 

 23) "At the marriage ceremony, the tali (marriage 

 badge) is made of a piece of a conch shell [Ttirbinclla 

 rapa) which is tied on the bride's neck at an auspicious 

 hour. She is taken before her landlord, who gives her 

 some paddy, and all the coconuts on the tree beneath 



which she happens to kneel To 



ascertain whether a marriage will be a happy one. a 

 conch shell is spun round. If it falls to the north, it 

 predicts good fortune ; if to the east or west, the omens 

 are favourable ; if to the south, very unfavourable." 



Lastly and most interesting of all, we find a caste 

 calling their marriage badge saiikhu tall which on 

 examination shows no likeness to a chank shell. These 

 are the Parawas of the coast tow^ns on the Indian side 

 of the Gulf of Mannar. When the Portuguese arrived 

 there early in the sixteenth century, these }:eople who 

 were principally pearl fishers, chank divers, and fisher- 

 men, were orthodox Hindus, but the stress of Muham- 

 madan competition drove them into alliance u-ith the 

 Portuguese and they went over in a body to the Roman 

 Catholic church. To-day the badoe tied around the 

 bride's neck on marriage consists of three ornaments, 

 a central cross flanked on either side by the symbol of 

 the Holy Ghost; nevertheless it is called .«r^? ///'//// tali 

 as among the castes first mentioned. There is no doubt 

 that when the caste was a Hindu one the tali was true 

 to name, indeed Parawa tradition is definite, for it asserts 

 that originally the central ornament was a small figure 

 of some Hindu God 'probably Krishna) flanked by one 

 of a chank shell on each side. The use of the orio-inal 

 name is a strange persistence m viewot nearly 400 years 

 sojourn within the Christian fold ; it is one of the many 

 signs of tolerance shown by the Roman Catholic priest- 

 hood towards their converts' prejudices on immaterial 

 points — a tolerance in petty matters that has done much 

 to help that church in its propaganda. 



Among some castes, including the Bauris and 

 Dandasis of Ganjam, turmeric water from a chank shell 

 is poured seven times over the hands of bride and bride- 

 groom which are tied together with seven turns of a 

 turmeric-dyed thread. (Thurston, X'ols. I and II.) 



lO-A 



