Note 99 — B (continued 4)

The sacred chank, conch, or sankhu, which has been referred to in connection with ceremonial observance, is the shell of the gastropod mollusc Turbinella rapa. This is secured, in Southern India, by divers from Tuticorin in the vicinity of the pearl banks. The chank shell, which one sees suspended on the forehead and round the neck of bullocks, is not only used by Hindus for offering libations, and as a musical instrument in temples, but is also cut into armlets, bracelets, and other ornaments. Writing in the sixteenth century, Garcia says:—“This chanco is a ware for the Bengal trade, and formerly produced more profit than now ... and there was formerly a custom in Bengal that no virgin in honour and esteem could be corrupted unless it were by placing bracelets of chanco on her arms; but, since the Patāns came in, this usage has more or less ceased.” “The conch shell,” Captain C. R. Day writes,99 “is not in secular use as a musical instrument, but is found in every temple, and is sounded during religious ceremonials, in processions, and before the shrines of Hindu deities. In Southern India, the sankhu is employed in the ministration of a class of temple servers called Dāsari. No tune, so to speak, can of course be played upon it, but still the tone is capable of much modulation by the lips, and its clear mellow notes are not without a certain charm. A rather striking effect is produced when it is used in the temple ritual as a sort of rhythmical accompaniment, when it plays the part of kannagōlu or tālavinyāsa.” In a petition from two natives of the city of Madras in 1734, in connection with the expenses for erecting a town called Chintadrepettah, the following occurs100:—“Expended towards digging a foundation, where chanks was buried with accustomary ceremonies.” A right-handed chank (i.e., one which has its spiral opening to the right), which was found off the coast of Ceylon at Jaffna in 1887, was sold for Rs. 700. Such a chank is said to have been sometimes priced at a lakh of rupees; and, writing in 1813, Milburn says100 that a chank opening to the right hand is greatly valued, and always sells for its weight in gold. Further, Baldæus narrates the legend that Garroude flew in all haste to Brahma, and brought to Kistna the chianko or kinkhorn twisted to the right. The chank appears as a symbol on coins of the Chālukyan and Pāndyan dynasties of Southern India, and on the modern coins of the Mahārājas of Travancore.