78 
‘“vear fromthe Gulfof Mannar. In some years the value 
‘of the rough shells, as imported into Madras and 
‘Calcutta reaches a value-of 2rojcoo or £15,000: 1 
have been unable to check the accuracy of these figures, 
the present day production averaging not more than 
2,500,000 but from the considerably greater revenue 
derived by the Indian Government from the chank 
fisheries off the Tinnevelly and Tanjore coasts during the 
first half of last century (vzde Appendix) the estimate 
probably gives an accurate statement of the value of 
the fisheries 50 to 100 years ago. 
Overfishing in certain localities, decrease in the 
numbers of the diving community and lessened demand 
for chank bangles are the chief causes of a decline that 
dates back beyond the assumption of the royal monopoly 
of chank fishing by the Madras Government in the early 
years of the nineteenth century. Garcia da Orta has 
already been cited (p. 67) for the statement that in the 
sixteenth century the chank trade with Bengal 
“formerly produced more profit than now” his explana- 
tion of the decline being the lower rates given in his day 
owing to the custom of wearing chank bangles i in Bengal 
having ‘‘ more or less ceased since the Pathans (Muham- 
m: adans) c came in.’ 
In the second half of the sev centeeml century [Tavernier 
visited Dacca and records that more than 2,000 persons 
were engaged in the chank-bangle trade in Dacca and 
Pabna, ‘all that is produced by them being exported 
to the kingdoms of Bhutan, Assam, Siam, and other 
countries to the north and east of the territories of the 
Great Mogul” (p. 267, Vol. II, English Translation, 
London 1889). He further mentions the visits of Bhutan 
merchants to Dacca whence they took home for sale 
“bracelets of sea-shells, with numerous round and square 
pieces of the size of our 15 Sol coins.” Elsewhere 
(Zoc. cit. p. 285) he characterized this trade as “ large.” 
Besides the trade in chank bracelets Tavernier (doc. 
cit. p. 267) states that ‘all the people of the north, men, 
women, ale and boys es small pieces of the same 
shell both round and square from their hair and ears.’ 
He also refers to a custom which prescribed that when 
a man dies ‘all his relatives and friends should come to 
