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by the intermediary of itinerant vendors who resort to 
Haragash at periodical intervals, to buy fresh supplies. 
These bangle peddlers buy parcels worth anything from 
Rs. 100 up to Rs. 1,000 ata time. Most of them have 
had business relations with the Haragash firms extending 
over many years and so, being well known, have no 
difficulty in obtaining credit till their return, three or 
even four months later. 
The Rajbansi, Kochi and Paliya castes of Hindus, 
inhabiting Rangpur, Dinajpur, and Jalpaiguri districts 
and the terai of Darjeeling, are the chief buyers of 
Haragash bangles, which consist largely of compound 
armlets of from ten to twelve rings in each set. The 
best centres of sale are Dhubni, Goalpara, Jalpaiguri and 
Cooch Behar. 
Dinajpur is another typical local centre. Inthe town 
itself the quarter where the chank-workers live is known 
as Shakhari Patti, and this, in view of the small number— 
four families only—now engaged in the industry, suggests 
its greater importance in former days. Indeed the men 
state that their numbers now are much reduced. They 
claim to be descendants of a colony from Chatmohr, in 
Pabna district, and are in consequence of the Vaisya 
caste. 
Of recent years Muhammadan workers have entered 
into competition with the regular caste workers and 
to-day the bulk of the local trade has passed into their 
hands. They form a separate settlement at Maljhar 
village near Rajapara Ferry Ghat, a short distance from 
Dinajpur. In all there are about 100 of these Muham- 
madan work-people engaged in bangle-making as against 
the four Vaisya Shakhari workshops each employing 5 
to 6men. The piece-work system is in use. 
The Dinajpur Shakharis do not produce their own 
working sections; all they require are obtained in the 
rough from four wholesale dealers (Hindus) belonging to 
Nadia who are located at Sahibganj, a small place a tew 
miles east of Dinajpur. The shell sections sold at Sahib- 
ganj are said to be sawn at Nadia, from shells brought from 
Calcutta. The Vaisya employers at Dinajpur usually 
purchase from Rs. 200 to Rs. 300 worth of sections at a 
time from the Sahibganj dealers on two to three months 
