50 



OKHAMANDAL MARINE ZOOLOGY— PART II 



In spite of the rapid spread of a desire for bracelets of more showy appearance, 

 there are very large numbers of prosperous Hindu households, especially in the country 

 districts, where the womenfolk remain attached to the old and less ostentatious custom 

 of wearing chank bangles solely as ornaments. Among these conservative folk a large 

 demand exists for the handsome products of the sankhari workshops. The ornamental 

 bangles made to meet these requirements are of two kinds called respectively bdla and 

 chilri. The former are broad bangles worn one on each wrist. The churi on the con- 



Text-piguee 1. 



M 



llllimillimimifTTTTTTT 



miiummimiiTn 



Edge and side views of a Bengal marriage bangle to show ornamentation 

 in yellow upon a red-lacquered ground. From Pabna, Bengal. X 2. 



trary is always quite narrow, generally J to ^ inch in width, and usually of conventional 

 scroll design, worn in a set of three on each wrist. 



The use of these ornamental bangles {bdla and churi) and also of the red marriage 

 bangle is limited ahnost entirely to the thoroughly Hinduised sections of the Bengali 

 people, together with the Hindu communities settled in Assam, Behar and Orissa. 

 Baishnab women, however, do not wear these bangles according to the Collector of 

 Birbhum. Information received from a Muhammadan source indicates that women of 

 the lower classes of this community in Dacca, Darjeeling and Assam occasionally wear 

 chank bangles as wrist ornaments. 



As elsewhere in India, it is the invariable custom in Bengal in orthodox Hindu 

 households for widows to discard all their jewellery on the death of their husbands. 

 In the case of chank .and glass bangles, it is usual for the widow to break and throw them 

 away on the first occasion when she bathes after her husband's death. They never 



