ORIENTAL IVORY CARVINGS 103 



The principal and very extensive use of ivory for such 

 ornaments is shown in the production of the bangles so 

 universally popular in India. In relation to this branch of 

 Indian ivory carving, we cannot do better than cite the 

 following passage from the article by Mr. J. L. Kipling, in 

 the Journal of Indian Art, to which reference has already 

 been made: 



"The ivory bangle, it has been remarked, is usually a 

 mere ring. The writer has never seen a specimen of open- 

 work or other carving, a mode of treatment that seems suita- 

 ble to the material, and well within the powers of the Indian 

 artisan. The traditional usages of caste have probably a 

 controlling effect. In the Panjab, on the occasion of a 

 marriage, the Mama, or maternal uncle, of the bride is ex- 

 pected to present her with a set of ivory bangles coloured 

 red, green, or black, and ornamented with tinsel spangles, 

 or lines with minute scratched circles, as may be the peculiar 

 fashion of the caste. The higher castes wear these only 

 during the first year of wedlock, after which they are replaced 

 by bangles of silver and gold or other materials. The 

 women of some Hindu castes, however, always wear ivory. 

 In nearly all cases the nature of the material is so disguised 

 by colour it would appear that some cheaper substance 

 might be made to serve equally well. In parts of the North- 

 western Provinces ivory is not used for bangles, but they 

 are common throughout the Panjab, in the greater part of 

 the Bombay Presidency, in Sind, in the Central Provinces, 

 in the Western States of Rajputana, and in parts of Bengal. 

 The ancient town of Pali, a station on the Jodhpur branch 

 of the Rajputana Railway, on the old trade route between 

 Bombay and Delhi through Ahmadabad and Ajmir, main- 

 tains a specialty in bangle turnery which, according to native 

 report, it has enjoyed for centuries, and absorbs the greater 

 part of the ivory that is sent northward from Bombay. This 



