Use of Coi^yy-slielis foi Currency, Auiulcts, etc. 165 



otlier shell ornaments. Its association with chank bantj;lcs 

 is specially interesting and seems to im[)ly a siinilar 

 cultural source for the use of these white shells. Hornell 

 in his work on " Tlie Sacred Chank of India"' ' informs 

 us (p. 50) that fragments of Cyprcra Diotictn and of a 

 Nerita, also beads of entire Palnditia shells, were found 

 near Hampasagra, on the Tungabhadra, 53 miles west of 

 Bellar}-, along with iS fragments of chank bangle-,. 

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

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

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

 Hadagalli, 65 miles west of Bellarj', came a single bangle 

 fragment with two money cowries {Cypr(€a mojtetn)" 

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

 fragment of a working section of chank shell, an entire 

 Cypnea uioncta, four fragments of scraper made of Uuio 

 shell, and three fragments of chank bangles ; associated 

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

 crusher, some potter)', 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 

 as.sociated with a great number of fragmentar\- chank 

 bangles, a basalt corncrusher, a bloodstone hammer, and 

 chert and agate cores (Hornell, [). 57;. The example (jf 

 C. nioncta figured by Hornell on plate V., (345^- '3) •'^ "'^ 

 great interest from the fact that the back of the specimen 

 has been rubbed down in the characteristic Ancient 

 lCg\ i)tian and East African fashion. 



In dealing with the mone\- of India prior to Alex- 

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

 the principal money finds have been of cowries, the 

 metallic monies being comparative!)- few " fp. 66), And 



'■-•^ Madras l-ishcrits IliilUliit, No. 7, ifJU- 



