Ritual conch shell (shankha)

The ritual conch shell (shankha) is often used during Buddhist rituals. This is used as a sound offering to the gods during rituals. The seven precious animals and hand-held weapons of deities represent purity. It is customary for a monk to blow the ritual conch shell during the Morning Prayer. It means that he is calling all the happiness and sound offerings to the deity. The sound also is believed to be a relief of people’s mental distress.

Every deity is said to have an emblem in his or her conch shell, the goddess Vishnu has a conch shell of her own named Panchajanya, and it means control over the five classes of beings. The hero of Mahabharata has an emblem Devadatta, it is said to hold power and sovereignty and power whose sound is believed to vanquish evil spirits and can prevent natural disaster and can scare poisonous creature.

Buddhism adopted the conch shell as a symbol of the fearless proclamation of the dharma. The ritual conch shell stands for the success of Buddha’s teaching and it is a symbol that the teaching of Buddha has spread in all directions as the sounding of the conch shell. In addition, the conch shell can be seen as mark in the soles, palms, limbs forehead bearing an auspicious mark in the divine being.

In fact, the whole statue of Buddha has a conch shell pattern in it, like the swirls of his hair; eyebrows and the conch like swirl of his navel are worth looking for. Nowadays, it is used as a sound to call people in religious assemblies, vessel for holy water and as a musical instrument to offer to the gods.

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