106 
a matter of great significance as well as of much diffi- 
culty, for whereas the Kochh people are professed 
Hindus, the Santals hold the animistic beliefs characte- 
ristic of Non-Hinduised Dravidians. However Oldham 
as quoted by Risley (I, p. 492) states that “the adhesion 
of the Kochh tribe to Hinduism is comparatively recent 
as shown by their own customs as regards burial, food 
and marriage.” 
The section of the Kurmi caste found in Chota 
Nagpore and Orissa also wear chank bangles. In view 
of what has been said above in regard to the Dravidian 
origin of the Kochhs and Santals, it is of importance to 
find that Risley (1, p. 530) considers this territorial 
section of the caste as undoubtedly Dravidian, as shown 
by their physical characteristics, religious beliefs and 
social customs. In appearance, he says that in Munbhum 
and the north of Orissa, it is difficult to distinguish a 
Kurmi from a Bhumy or a Santal. In their religion the 
animistic beliefs characteristic of the Dravidian races 
are overlaid by the thinnest veneer of conventional 
Hinduism, and the vague shapes of ghosts and demons 
who haunt the jungles and the rocks are the real powers 
to whom the Kurmi looks for the ordering of his moral 
and physical welfare. 
Alike with the Santals the internal structure of that 
branch of the Kurmi caste living in Chota Nagpur and 
Orissa is founded upon a distinct and well-defined tote- 
mism in which a large proportion of the totems are still 
capable of being identified. Risley (II, appendix, p. 88) 
enumerates 60 totemistic sections or septs in this 
caste, among which is one termed Sankhawar whose 
members are prohibited from wearing chank shell 
ornaments. Among the Santals, the place of this sept 
is taken by one called Sankh, wherein all individuals are 
forbidden, under pain of caste punishment, the use of 
the chank shell in any form; they may neither cut, burn, 
nor use the shell, nor may the women of this sept use it 
in personal adornment (I, p. xliii). 
The prevalence of the use of chank bangles among 
these Dravidian races, the present animistic beliefs of 
the Santals and Chota Nagpur Kurmis, and the com- 
paratively recent renunciation of the same cult by the 
great Kocbh tribe, taken in conjunction with other facts 
and especially with the widely spread archzological 
