THE CHANK BANGLE INDUSTRY. 
419 
forms in use at the present day. The third fine example is a tiny fragment (3310-8), of 
the narrow form of bangle known as churi in Bengal, usually worn in sets of three 
on each wrist. The other fragments found are of simpler patterns. 
An interesting associated find was that of a small ‘ ‘ finial ’ ’ carved out of shell , 
probably mother-of-pearl (fig. 3310 — 5, pi. xvi). It is identical in form with a 
mother-of-pearl nose-pendant now in use among the poorer castes in some country 
districts in Bengal. An example which I purchased in Eastern Bengal is carved from 
the shell of a river mussel ( Unio sp.). From the alluvium at Mahuri whence the 
bangle fragments came, a few neolithic implements, chert flakes and scrapers 
principally, were unearthed, together with several noticeable pieces of pottery. Of 
the latter, one is of special importance as it affords some evidence better than the 
neoliths touching the age of the bangle factory once situated at this place. It is a 
small headless figure of a sacred bull, of polished earthenware, red externally and 
black within. Two garlands are indicated around the hump by means of rows of tiny 
impressed punctures, and there can be little doubt that it is of early Brahmanical age. 
(d) Kheralu. — A single fragment of a sawn working section of chank shell was 
found on the surface of the loess at this place. 
Eight sites can clearly be indicated as probable centres of this industry, namely, 
(a) Sigam, Hiran Valley, Baroda Prant, ( b ) Kamrej, on the Tapti, (c) Mahuri, on the 
left bank of the Sabarmati, Baroda State, with (d) Ambavalli, ( e ) Damnagar, (/) 
Kodinar, and (g) in and on the alluvium of theShitranji river above Babapur, all four in 
Amreli Prant, Kathiawar, also ( h ) Valabhipur in Vala State, Kathiawar. At all these 
places working fragments of chank shells have been found. The most important sites 
appear to have been those at Mahuri in Gujarat and Ambavalli and Valabhipur in 
Kathiawar. The un worked sections and waste pieces of shells found at these three 
places are so numerous and so characteristic in their form of stages in shell-bangle 
manufacture that we are perforce compelled to admit these sites as having been in old 
times locations of important factories, a conclusion to which further weight is given 
by the discovery at each of these places of fragments of completed bangles, in many 
instances of highly decorated patterns. At Ambavalli and Valabhipur fragments of 
finished bangles are especially plentiful, and as may be seen by reference to pi. xvi 
where two bangle fragments from Mahuri (No. 3310), one from Babapur (No. 3615), ten 
from Valabhipur (No. 3493) , one from Kamrej (No. 3066) and seventeen fragments 
from Ambavalli are figured, ornamentation is well executed and exhibits considerable 
taste, a high degree of skill, and undoubtedly the employment of effective tools of 
several sorts — saws, drills and files. Iron is the only metal suitable for making tools 
fit for carving the extremely hard substance of chank shells, and it is of the greatest 
interest and significance that at the Ambavalli site, associated with the many fragments 
of worked and unworked chank circlets found there, an iron knife with a tang was 
discovered which from personal examination I am satisfied may well represent such 
a chank-saw as is to-day in common use in Bengal chank factories for cutting 
patterns upon the bangles. 
