HORNELL— THE INDIAN CONCH 69 



weathered out of different alluvial strata in such way tliat they come eventually to lie 

 together at a lower level of the original ground or else in some newer river deposit into 

 which floods may have rolled them. 



(6) The facts already noted that all sections of chank shells, working pieces as well 

 as wastage scraps, show cleanly sawn surfaces as verified by examination of the originals 

 now in the Madras Museum, and that these surfaces show series of striae often at two 

 or more angles to one another, are sufficient to negative the tentative suggestion made 

 by Mr. Bruce Foote assigning a neolithic origin to the workmanship. Neither serrate 

 nor biserrate chert flake saws however delicately made could possibly produce such 

 cleanly sawn sections as we see represented in the collection. The aid of thin metal 

 saws must be invoked and it is most significant that in two instances (Ambavalli in 

 Kathiawar and Muski in the Raichur Doab) fragments of iron knives were found asso- 

 ciated with the remnants of chank working sections. In several other cases (Srinivaspur 

 in Mysore, Havaligi Hill in Anantapur, and Bastipad in Kurnul) pieces of iron slag were 

 found in association. 



As the working sections of chank shells retain visible evidence of being sawn by 

 means of a metal (iron) saw and as iron fragments are frequently associated with them, 

 the evidence is to me satisfactory that the age of the former cannot possibly be neolithic ; 

 knowledge of the manufacture of iron into somewhat elaborate tools — saws, files, and 

 drills — must have been possessed by the bangle makers. This would appear therefore 

 to rule out the early iron age, when iron weapons and tools were of primitive design. 



Incidentally this conclusion is likely to affect the estimate of age accorded to the 

 potsherds so frequently associated with fragments of chank bangles and to render 

 doubtful their identification as neolithic or even of early iron age. 



(c) Three sites alone give other than negative evidence in regard to age. These 

 are Gudivada in Kistna district, Valabhipur in Kathiawar and Mahuri in Gujarat. 

 The remains at the first named are indubitably Buddhistic while the occurrence of a 

 figurine of a bull with a double garland round the hump points distinctly to an age 

 when the adherents of Brahmanism were in the land holding in especial reverence Siva's 

 sacred bull. Most important find of all was that made in the ruins of Valabhipur, for 

 the history of this old city is fairly well known ; the dates of many of the great events 

 that happened there are on record and the descriptions of two Chinese Buddhist pilgrims 

 who visited the city are extant. The story of Valabhipur goes back some centuries 

 before the Christian era and for long it was the seat of the Valabhis, a Rajput race, 

 and the centre of their rule, till the middle of the eighth century when the last of the line 

 was overthrown by Arab invaders from Sind. Valabhi was visited by the Chinese 

 pilgrim, Hiuen Tsang, in the course of his fifteen years' sojourn in India (A.D. 630-645) 

 and by I. Tsing in the succeeding century. Both pilgrims describe it as a large and 

 flourishing city and a great centre of Buddhist learning, its streets and schools crowded 

 with students. The reigning dynasty, themselves of the Brahman faith, appear to have 



