Sir W. H. Sleeman, _Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official_ (Westminster, 1893), i. 38 _sq._; compare _Census of India, 1901_, vol. xiii., _Central Provinces_, part i. p. 92.
_Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, lxxii., part iii. (Calcutta, 1904) p. 42.
J. A. Dubois, _Mœurs, institutions et cérémonies des peuples de l’Inde_ (Paris, 1825), ii. 448 _sq._; Monier Williams, _Religious Life and Thought in India_, pp. 333-335; W. Crooke, _Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India_ (Westminster, 1896), ii. 110 _sq._ According to another account, it is Vishnu, not Krishna, to whom the holy plant is annually married in every pious Hindoo family. See _Census of India, 1901_, vol. xviii., _Baroda_, p. 125.
Sir Henry M. Elliot, _Memoirs on the History, Folklore, and Distribution of the Races of the North-western Provinces of India_, edited by J. Beames (London, 1869), i. 233 _sq._
Sir W. H. Sleeman, _Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official_ (Westminster, 1893), i. 147-149, 175. The _Salagrama_ is commonly perforated in one or more places by worms or, as the Hindoos believe, by the legendary insect Vajrakita or by Vishnu himself. The value of the fossil shell depends on its colour, and the number of its convolutions and holes. The black are prized as gracious embodiments of Vishnu; the violet are shunned as dangerous avatars of the god. He who possesses a black _Salagrama_ keeps it wrapped in white linen, washes and adores it daily. A draught of the water in which the shell has been washed is supposed to purge away all sin and to secure the temporal and eternal welfare of the drinker. These fossils are found in Nepaul, in the upper course of the river Gandaka, a northern tributary of the Ganges. Hence the district goes by the name of Salagrami, and is highly esteemed for its sanctity; a visit to it confers great merit on a man. See Sonnerat, _Voyage aux Indes Orientales et à la Chine_ (Paris, 1782), i. 173 _sq._; J. A. Dubois, _Mœurs, institutions et cérémonies des peuples de l’Indie_ (Paris, 1825), ii. 446-448; Sir W. H. Sleeman, _op. cit._ i. 148 _sq._, with the editor’s notes; Monier Williams, _Religious Thought and Life in India_, pp. 69 _sq._; G. Watt, _Dictionary of the Economic Products of India_, vi. Part II. (London and Calcutta, 1893) p. 384; W. Crooke, _op. cit._ ii. 164 _sq._; _Indian Antiquary_, xxv. (1896) p. 146; G. Oppert, _On the Original Inhabitants of Bharatavarsa or India_ (Westminster and Leipsic, 1893), pp. 337-359; _id._, “Note sur les Sālagrāmas,” _Comptes rendus de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres_ (Paris, 1900), pp. 472-485. The shell derives its name of ammonite from its resemblance to a ram’s horn, recalling the ram-god Ammon.