56 OKHAMANDAL MARINE ZOOLOGY— PART II 



The custom is associated particularly with those caste sub-divisions whose 

 territorial cognomen indicates a long settled residence in the Kongu country (Coimbatore 

 and Salem). The Konga sub-divisions of the Idaiyar, Paraiyar, Vannar and Shanar 

 castes have this custom in common and as several other castes in Coimbatore also 

 adhere to it, we may infer that at one time the custom was general in the Kongu country 

 among at least the generahty of the lower castes. 



Another caste sub-division where the women wear chank bangles is that of the 

 Sangukatti Idaiyans. Among them the marriage ceremony requires, as in Bengal, 

 the placing of a chank bangle on one of the bride's wrists. 



Among Coimbatore castes the chank bangle is worn always upon the left wrist, 

 usually singly but occasionally a pair in certain cases, e.g., among the Konga Paraiyans. 



The wearing of these bangles is considered as a symbol of the permanence of the 

 marriage tie, a belief probably derived from the custom of breaking the bangle after the 

 death of the husband. The Collector of Coimbatore states that a widow discards her 

 bangle one month after her husband's death. He adds that if a woman accidentally 

 breaks her bangle, she thinks it unlucky and regards it as an omen that her husband 

 will chance on some evil ; when the husband is sick the wife prays that it may be her 

 good fortune to wear the bangle during her whole life. A woman considers it improper 

 to appear before her husband or in pubHc without the bangle. The wearing of this 

 ornament appears to be followed in Coimbatore largely because it is an ancient 

 custom, with no further significance beyond what is implied above. It is not 

 now connected with behef in the evil-eye though it is said to have had this 

 significance in former times. The general belief in the efficacy of the chank as a 

 specific against skin diseases may however be counted as one of the obscure reasons for 

 its continued usage. 



The practice is more general among low castes. The Collectors of Madura and 

 Trichinopoly both inform me that among Paraiyans, Chukkiliyans (leather workers, etc.), 

 Oddans, Koravas and the Naick sections known as Kavaraja and Thottiya Kambalathans, 

 together with the wandering tribe of Lambadis, the custom of wearing chank bangles 

 is found to prevail here and there in both districts. There appears to be no general 

 observance of the custom — ^in some villages and taluks none among the women of the 

 castes named wears chank bangles ; elsewhere, as in the Namakkal Taluk (Trichinopoly 

 District), a definite section of the Paraiyan caste called Sengudimi Paraiyans adopts this 

 ornament as a distinguishing sept distinction, while in other parts of the country, the 

 women of these various low castes wear it chiefly if not entirely for its ornamental value. 

 The custom appears to be dying out, as witness the vagueness of the people who still 

 adhere to its observance as to the reason for so doing, its partial and sporadic geographical 

 distribution in the districts where it lingers, and the comparatively small numbers who 

 adhere to it. As a typical, instance of the irregular distribution of the custom, the 

 report of the Collector of Trichinopoly states that in the Miisiri and Karur Taluks, no 



