HORNELL— THE INDIAN CONCH 59 



in this poem and the similarity of the names of the towns, ports and goods mentioned 

 incidentally with those employed by Ptolemy and the author of the " Periplus of the 

 Erythraean Sea," we may date it as approximately contemporaneous with the writings 

 of these authors and certainly not later than the 2nd or 3rd century A.D. 



In one passage (LL. 140-144) the Parawas are described as men who dived for pearl 

 oysters and for chank shells and knew charms to keep sharks away from that part of 

 the sea where diving was being carried on. Another passage depicts the city of Korkai, 

 then a seaport at the mouth of the Tambraparni, as the chief town in the country of 

 the Parawas and the seat of the pearl fishery, with a population consisting chiefly of 

 pearl-divers and chank-cutters. The great epic, the Silappathikharram, or " Lay of the 

 Anklet," written about the same period by a Jain poet, gives further information about 

 Korkai, from which we gather that on account of the great value of the revenue derived 

 from the pearl fishery, this city was a sub-capital of the Pandyan realm and the usual 

 residence of the heir-apparent, boasting great magnificence and adorned with temples 

 and palaces befitting its wealth and importance. 



Another valuable reference to the chank trade is contained in two Tamil stanzas 

 which chronicle a passage at arms between a Brahman and Nakkirar, the celebrated 

 poet-president of the Madura Sangam in the reign of the Pandyan king Nedunj Cheliyan 

 II, who flourished probably about the beginning of the 2nd century A.D. 



The Brahman, named Dharmi, presented to the Sangam a poem purporting to 

 be composed with the aid of Siva. Nakkirar, the President, in spite of its alleged 

 divine origin criticised the poem mercilessly, and rejected it as unworthy of literary 

 recognition. The Brahman took revenge by presenting another poem also purporting 

 to be inspired by Siva ; in it he held the President up to ridicule on account of his 

 caste trade in pungent lines which may be translated literally as foUows : — 



" Is Kiran fit to criticise my poem ? Spreading his knees wide, his joints 

 loosened (by the labour) does he not saw chanks into sections, his ghee-smeared saw 

 murmuring the while kir — ^kir ? " 



Besides the insult intended to be givSn, the verse contains a play on the President's 

 name and the sound given out during the sawing of chank shells. 



The reply of Nakkirar was " Chank-cutting is indeed the calling of my caste ; 

 of that I am not ashamed. But of what caste is Sankara ? (one of the many names 

 of Siva). We earn our livelihood by cutting chanks ; we do not live by begging as he 

 did " — an allusion to the fable popularised by the Brahmans wherein Siva is represented 

 as a mendicant seeking alms with a skull in his hand as begging bowl. 



Dharmi's description of a chank-cutter's trade is wonderfully vivid in the original 

 Tamil ; in a dozen words he paints a realistic word-picture of a cutter's workshop — ^the 

 men seated on the ground with the knees widely spread and depressed outwards almost 

 to the ground to give free play to the great crescentic two-handled saw monotonously 



