68 
(a) PRELIMINARY. 
At the present day, chank cutting, save for some 
insignificant work done in Kilakarai on the Ramnad 
coast near Pamban, has long been a forgotten 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 whotesale 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 1910 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 1910 
was accordingly made ; ; the chief distributi ing 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 being illustrated by a series of 
photographs depicting the various stages in the manufac- 
ture and ornamentation of a chank bangle. 
