Use of Cowry -shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 165 



other shell ornaments. Its association with chank bangles 

 is specially interesting and seems to imply a similar 

 cultural source for the use of these white shells. Hornell 

 in his work on "The Sacred Chank of India" 125 informs 

 us (p. 50) that fragments of Cyprcea moneta and of a 

 Nerita, also beads of entire Paludina shells, were found 

 near Hampasagra, on the Tungabhadra, 53 miles west of 

 Bellary, along with 18 fragments of chank bangles, 

 Mr. Bruce Foote placing the age of this find as late 

 neolithic or early iron age. Also (p. 51), "from made 

 ground in the north bank of a nullah, at Huvina, near 

 Hadagalli, 65 miles west of Bellary, came a single bangle 

 fragment with two money cowries (Cypraa moneta}" 

 and " from an old site north of Bellaguppa, came a 

 fragment of a working section of chank shell, an entire 

 Cyprcza moneta^ four fragments of scraper made of Unio 

 shell, and three fragments of chank bangles ; associated 

 with these were a neolithic celt, a fragment of a corn- 

 crusher, some pottery, and two metal fragments, one 

 being possibly part of a bronze ring." A further discovery 

 of the money-cowry is recorded from Damnagar, Amreli 

 Prant, Kathiawar, where two examples were found 

 associated with a great number of fragmentary chank 

 bangles, a basalt corncrusher, a bloodstone hammer, and 

 chert and agate cores (Hornell, p. 57). The example of 

 C. moneta figured by Hornell on plate V., (3456-13) is of 

 great interest from the fact that the back of the specimen 

 has been rubbed down in the characteristic Ancient 

 Egyptian and East African fashion. 



In dealing with the money of India prior to Alex- 

 ander the Great, Del Mar (pp. a'/.) states that : " In Bengal 

 the principal money finds have been of cowries, the 

 metallic monies being comparatively few" (p. 66). And 



lti Madras Fisheries Rulleiin, No. 7, 1914. 



