THE CHANK BANGLE INDUSTRY. 
445 
always substitutes chaxik bangles. The Muehis, like the Paraiyar of the South, are 
largely the caste drummers of the province and, as they are fond of the violin and the 
pipe, are employed as musicians at Hindu weddings. 
In Western Bengal and in Behar the Santals take the place occupied by the Raj- 
bansi and Paliyas in North-Eastern and Eastern Bengal as the chief chank-bangle 
wearing tribe. Many of their women follow the same habit of disposing of a number 
of chank bangles, three to five usually, as a massive cuff-like gauntlet or compound 
bracelet. These people being generally poor, the quality employed for these com- 
pound gauntlets is inferior, and red and yellow lac is freely used upon them to enhance 
their appearance and to disguise imperfections. Dead shells are usually employed 
by the cutters for Santa! bangles. Many women are too poor to afford these orna- 
ments and others belong to families which do not observe the custom. In Birbhum, 
which may be taken as a representative district, it is estimated that about half the 
Santal female population follow this custom. Sometimes Santal girls wear chank 
bangles from an early age, but generally they are assumed at marriage. The custom 
appears to have no religious significance, and marriage is often performed without the 
assumption of these bangles, which are worn rather for ornament than for any serious 
motive. Alike with their Hindu sisters, the Santal women break and throw away 
their bangles on the occasion of widowhood, reassuming others however, if they wish, 
should they remarry. 
Risley states that the Santals in point of physical characteristics may be regarded 
as typical examples of the pure Dravidian stock , 1 and in view of the similar origin 
attributed to the Kochh tribe which includes both the Rajbansi and the Paliya, this 
becomes a matter of great significance as well as of much difficulty, for whereas the 
Kochh people are professed Hindus, the Santals hold the animistic beliefs characteristic 
of non-Hinduised Dravidians. However Oldham, as quoted by Risley , 2 states that 
the adhesion of the Kochh tribe to Hinduism is comparatively recent as shown by 
their customs as regards burial, food and marriage. 
The section of the Kurmi caste found in Chota Nagpur and Orissa also wear chank 
bangles. In view of what has been said above in regard to the Dravidian origin of the 
Kochhs and Santals, it is of importance to find that Risley 3 considers this territorial 
section of the caste as undoubtedly Dravidian, as shown by their physical characteris- 
tics, religious beliefs and social customs. He adds that in Manbhum and the north 
of Orissa, it is difficult to distinguish a Kurmi in appearance from a Bhumij or a Santal. 
In their religion the animistic beliefs characteristic of the Dravidian races are overlaid 
by the thinnest veneer of conventional Hinduism, and the vague shapes of ghosts or 
demons who haunt the jungles and the rocks are the real powers to whom the Kurmi 
looks for the ordering of his moral and physical welfare. 
Alike with the Santals the internal structure of that branch of the Kurmi caste 
living in Chota Nagpur and Orissa is founded upon a distinct and well-defined totemism 
1 “ The Tribes and Castes of Bengal, ’ ’ vol. ii, p. 225. 
2 Risley, loc. cit., vol. i, p. 492. 
8 Ibid., vol. i, p. 530. 
