The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.320.2

v1.c10.320.2

It is held to be particularly sacred. I have seen only one specimen of this kind; but it had only three interior shells. It is generally as high-priced as the abnormal variety called *dakṣiṇāvarta*, “in which the whorls, instead of running from right to left, as in the ordinary shell, are reversed, and run from left to right”. “It is”, says Sir Emerson Tennent, “regarded with such reverence that a specimen formerly sold for its weight in gold, but one may now be had for four or five pounds”. This high price is due to the virtues ascribed to it in the Purāṇas. One of them, the *Varāha*, says, “He who, going to a river flowing towards the east, performs an *abhiṣeka* ceremony on himself with a right-handed *śaṅkha*, purges himself from all sin. He who, in such a river standing up to his navel in water, pours sesamum seed and water profusely on his head from a right-handed *śaṅkha*, instantly destroys all the sins of his life”.¹⁵⁹ Of the virtues of *śaṅkhas* generally, the *Padma Purāṇa* gives a detailed account. According to it, “He who bathes Viṣṇu with the milk of a gold-coloured cow (*Kailā*) filled in a *śaṅkha*, acquires more merit than can be attained by performing a hundred million *Yajñas*. He who bathes the Great Lord with the milk of other than golden coloured cows, obtains the rank of Brahmā. Pouring Ganges water in a *śaṅkha*, he, who bathes Mādhava, saying at the same time ‘salutation to Nārāyaṇa’, avoids the evil of all future transmigration.