Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ix. (1916), No. 5. 3 



according to the command of Vasudeva. 1 In this chank 

 is the chief of the Brahmans (Brahmendra or Brahmana- 

 spati). This is why we worship the sacred chank. Glory 

 to thee, sacred shell, blessed by all the gods, born in the 

 sea, and formerly held by Vishnu in his hand. We adore 

 the sacred chank and meditate upon it. May we be filled 

 with joy ! 



" I offer (to the chank) everything needful for wor- 

 ship — perfumes, rice and flowers." 2 



In India the moon is believed to preside over the 

 growth of crops, etc., and in certain places, and especially 

 in Siam, the inauguration of the ploughing season is 

 celebrated by the Minister of Agriculture being borne on 

 a palanquin to the field, accompanied by priests blowing 

 loud blasts on chank shells. In Malabar, also, at the 

 bringing in of the first fruits, the priest comes forth from 

 the local temple, preceded by a man blowing a conch- 

 shell trumpet. 



Thus we find embodied in the above prayer, and in 

 the harvest rites, the very elements which make up the 

 moon-cult of the Aztecs. Associated with the chank we 

 have (a), the God of the Moon, and (#), Varuna, the Hindu 

 god of the waters and of the west quarter, who is 

 worshipped as one of the guardian deities of the earth, 

 and in times of drought and famine. He is represented 

 in paintings as a white man seated on Makara, a mythical 

 crocodile. This god recalls Tlaloc, the Mexican Rain 

 God, who is sometimes associated with the crocodile, and, 

 as previously mentioned, is depicted as emerging from 

 the conch-shell. (V), Prajapati, " the father of all creatures," 

 a personification of the sun, is emblematical of creation 

 and birth. The snail or conch-shell, as we have seen, 



1 One of the names of Krishna. 



2 Hornell, "The Sacred Chank of India," 1914. 



