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this priestly caste and in the Brahma Karma, the work 
which sets forth in minute detail the order and phrasing 
of the sacred rites of the Brahmans, the prayer to the 
sacred chank may be translated as follows :— 
Taking the chank in his hand the Brahman recites: 
“ At the mouth of this shell is the God of the Moon, on 
its side is Varuna, on its back Prajapati, and on its apex, 
the Ganges, the Sarasvati, and all the other sacred rivers 
of the three worlds in which they make ablutions accord- 
ing to the command of Vasudeva.* In this chank is the 
chief of the Brahmans (Brahmendra or Brahmanaspati). 
This is why we must worship the sacred chank. Glory 
to thee, sacred shell, blessed by all the gods, born in the 
sea, and formerly held by Vishnuin hishand. Weadore 
the sacred chank and meditate upon it. May we be 
filled with joy ! 
“T offer (to the chank) everything needful for wor- 
ship—perfumes, rice and flowers.” 
Here they make the sign of the chank, but Bourquin 
(Annales du Musée Guimet, Vol. VII., p. 45), from whom 
I quote, says he was never able to discover the manner 
of making this sign and I have had a like ill-success. 
While the above is a portion of the liturgy which the 
head of each Brahman family is theoretically bound to 
recite daily, under present day conditions, this is impossi- 
ble and in fact it is only on specially important puja or 
holy days that even a greatly curtailed version of this 
and the accompanying prayers is recited by the head of 
the family, and this too only in thoroughly orthodox 
families. The curtailed prayer usually runs “Oh, chank 
shell, thou wast produced in the sea and art held by 
Vishnu in his hand. Thou art worshipped by all the 
gods. Receive my homage.” 
In this connection an interesting chank legend centres 
round the temple tank in Tirukalikundram, a_ holy 
Saivite village in the Chingleput District, some 37 miles 
southward of Madras. The village munsiff, Mr. T. A. 
Vedachala Gurukkal, to whom I am indebted for the 
following particulars, states that once every twelve years 
a chank rises to the surface of the large sacred bathing 
tank called Sanku Theertham. Three days before this 
—_— 
“ One of the names. of Krishna, 
