71 
Risley (II, p. 221) they say that up to the time of Adisur 
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 
given to certain Brahmans at the celebration of a special 
sacrifice. [he 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 polishing 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 throughout the two Bengals. Besides the 
Vaisya Sank haris 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. rom 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 
