46 
owing to physical changes in the delta of the Tambra- 
parni, I found an excellently preserved sawn shoulder- 
piece, with marks of the apex having been hammered in 
after the present-day habit in Dacca workshops. + This 
was found on the surface in an open space within the 
present village. Time did not allow me to prosecute a 
detailed search, but in my own mind the single fragment 
found is conclusive evidence of the industry having once 
been located here. No shell cutting of any description 
is carried on anywhere in this neighbourhood, 
Again, at Tuticorin, | have found a sawn and ham- 
mered shoulder-piece of typical form, hence as the three 
discoveries were all made at places which in turn have 
been the head-quarters of the chank-fishery, I am fully 
convinced that at all three, chank-bangle workshops 
formerly existed, to treat on the spot this product of the 
neighbouring sea. Why the seat of the bangle cutting 
trade became transferred or limited to Bengal is 
obscure and may never be satisfactorily elucidated ; I am, 
however, inclined to suggest the hypothesis that the 
decay of the industry in Tinnevelly may have been 
consequent upon the Muhammadan invasion. The date 
of the passing away of the chank-cutting industry I am 
inclined to put tentatively at about the fourteenth 
century, a time which marks the close of unchallenged 
Hindu supremacy in the south, the spoliation of the 
vast riches of the Pandyan cities by the Moslem and the 
heyday of Arab sea-power on this part of the Indian 
coast. With the depression and decay entailed by th 
loot and ruin of their enormously wealthy temples and 
long prosperous cities by the invaders under Malik 
Kafur and his lieutenants it is far from improbable that 
the particular trade here referred to became disorganized 
within the Pandyan realm and forced into a different 
channel, the whole of the shells being exported to 
Bengal to be cut there instead of being treated locally at 
the seat of the fishery. 
It is also noteworthy that the huge funeral urns found 
in tumuli of the Tambraparni valley (at Adichanallur) 
have yielded a few fragments of working sections cut 
from chank shells, associated inthe urns with beautifully 
formed bronze utensils, iron weapons and implements 
and gold fillets. So old are these tumuli that they are 
