137 
possessed by the Shank Narayan temple is a small 
elongated specimen offered at the shrine some twenty 
years ago bya Bhatia from Zanzibar ; that of the Lakshmi 
temple is a short broad one of small size with handsome 
arabesque ornamentation on the mounting—it has been 
in the possession of the temple since Samvat 1890 (A.D. 
1833). At Benares, temple treasures include similar 
examples, while in the south of India, where opportu- 
nities to obtain these shells are greater, many of the fine 
temples which form the architectural jewels of that devout 
land possess one or more. The chief temples at Rames- 
waram, Chidambaram and Madura may be instanced. 
It is remarkable also and indicative that this custom 
has not originated with modern Hinduism, that sinistral 
chanks are objects of adoration among northern Bud- 
dhists. Sarat Chandra Das, the intrepid survey officer 
who spent some perilous years in Thibet, mentions 
(“Journey to Lhasa,” London, 1902), that in the Sakya 
monastery lying to the south-west of Shigatze, there is 
preserved in the temple a chank of this rare form. Its 
history is invested with more than ordinary interest, for 
the monastic records state that it was a present from 
Kublai Khan, the great Tartar conqueror of China and 
patron of the Polos, to Phagpa, a hierarch of Sakya, whom 
Kublai made ruler of Thibet in the second half of the 
thirteenth century. Sarat Chandra Das mentions that 
this famous shell is blown by the lamas only when the 
request is accompanied by a present of seven ounces of 
silver, but to have it blown ‘is held to be an act of 
great merit.” 
In Thibet these left-handed chanks are called Va 
chyil dung-kar and in Chinese Yu hsuan pat-let. The 
people of both countries consider such shells as treasures 
of inestimable value. In 1867, one was known to be 
kept at Fuchu by the Ti-tuh (Peking Gazette, February 
23rd, 1867) and one at Lhassa (‘‘ Journey to Lhasa,” z¢ 
supra, p. 242, footnote). 
At one time the value of these shells is said to have 
been assessed at their weight in gold and this statement 
is probably correct. To-day they are less valuable and 
small and imperfect ones occasionally change hands in 
the north of Ceylon at Rs. 60 to Rs. 90 each (say £4 
to £6); such shells are usually sub-fossil ones found 
g-A 
