THE CHANK BANGLE INDUSTRY. 
443 
India, more especially in the Tamil country, in the Deccan, in Kathiawar, Gujarat, 
and Bengal, at the present day only in Bengal and the hill districts to the west, north 
and east does the custom continue to be widely observed and of notable social 
importance. 
In Bengal and wherever in the adjacent provinces of Assam, Behar and Orissa 
there are colonies of the Bengali race, every married woman of castes which are com- 
pletely Hinduised is bound to possess a pair of chank bangles lacquered in vermilion 
as one of the visible tokens of her married state ; the red sankha indeed is as neces- 
sary of assumption during the marriage ceremonies as is the performance of that other 
Bengali custom of smearing a streak of vermilion on the forehead or down the parting 
of the bride’s hair or as the wedding ring of Englishwomen. Garcia da Orta’s curi- 
ous statement quoted on page 17 is to be explained in the light of this custom ; 
his informants doubtless meant to convey no more than that among the better classes 
an essential part of the marriage ceremony consisted in placing chank bracelets on 
the arms of the bride. The women of castes holding good social status appear how- 
ever to have no great liking for the custom particularly if their husbands be well-to-do, 
and I was informed that they frequently lay them aside temporarily in favour either 
of handsomely carved ornamental chank bangles or replace them, when the means 
permit, by gold and jewelled ones. Even chank bangles are sometimes ornamented 
with gold and set with precious stones ; the price of these may reach several hundreds 
of rupees. The great majority of married women, however, wear them permanently, 
never removing them so long as their husbands are alive. Occasionally sankha 
(marriage) bangles are made in two sections secured together after the bangle is 
placed on the wrist by means of tiny bamboo pins as it is otherwise impossible to pass 
one of the right size over the hand without great difficulty and the infliction of acute 
pain. 
In spite of the rapid spread of a desire for bracelets of more showy appearance 
there are a very large number 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 respec- 
tively bala and churi. The former are broad bangles worn one on each wrist. The 
churis on the contrary are always quite narrow, generally ^ 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 ( bala and churi) and also of the red marriage 
bangle is limited almost entirely to the thoroughly Hinduised sections of the Bengali 
people, more particularly to those inhabiting the districts in the north, south, and 
east of Bengal, together with the Hindu communities settled in Assam. Baishnab 
women, however, do not wear these bangles according to the Collector of Birbhum, 
Mr. Rai Amrita Eal Mukerji, Bahadur. According to the information received from 
a Muhammadan source women of the lower classes of this community in Dacca, Darjee- 
ling and Assam are said also occasionally to wear chank bangles as wrist ornaments. 
