A Conch is a sea creature, a marine gastropod. It has a shell. The animal inside the shell is often cooked and eaten. The shell is sometimes made into a form of crude bugle by knocking off the small tip of the shell to form a mouthpiece.
The Conch in Hindu Tradition
The conch is a major Hindu article of prayer, used as a trumpeting announcement of all sorts. The God of Preservation, Vishnu, is said to hold a special conch, Panchajaya, that represents life as it has come out of life-giving waters. The warriors of ancient India would blow conchs to announce battle, such as is famously represented in the beginning of the war of Kurukshetra in the Mahabharata, the famous Hindu epic. The conch shell is a deep part of Hindu symbolic and religious tradition. To this very day, all Hindus use the conch as a part of their religious practices, blowing it during worship at specific points, accompanied by ceremonial bells.
The animal inside the shell is eaten, either raw, as in salads, or cooked, as in fritters, chowders, gumbos, and burgers.
Conchshells are sometimes used as crude bugles by removal of the small tip of the shell to form a mouthpiece, as decoration, as decorative planters, ground up to be used as an ingredient in porcelain, and in cameo making.
In classic Mayan art, conches are shown being utilized in many ways including as paint and ink holders for elite scribes, as bugle or trumpet, and as hand weapons (held by combatants by inserting their hands in the aperature).
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