A sari or saree[note 1] is a strip of unstitched cloth, worn by women,
ranging from four to nine yards in length that is draped over the body
in various styles which is native to the Indian Subcontinent. The word
sari is derived from Sanskrit शाटी śāṭī which means 'strip of cloth' and
शाडी śāḍī or साडी sāḍī in Prakrit, and which was corrupted to sāṛī in
Hindi. The word 'Sattika' is mentioned as describing women's attire in
ancient India in Buddhist Jain literature called Jatakas. This could be
equivalent to modern day 'Sari'. The term for female bodice, the choli
is derived from another ruling clan from south, the Cholas.
Rajatarangini (meaning the 'river of kings'), a tenth century literary
work by Kalhana, states that the Choli from the Deccan was introduced
under the royal order in Kashmir. The concept of Pallava, the end piece
in the sari, originated during the Pallavas period and named after the
Pallavas, another ruling clan of Ancient Tamilakam.It is popular in
India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Burma, Malaysia,
and Singapore. The most common style is for the sari to be wrapped
around the waist, with one end then draped over the shoulder, baring the
midriff.The sari is usually worn over a petticoat (called lahaṅgā or
lehenga in the north; langa, pavada, or pavadai in the south; chaniyo,
parkar, ghaghra, or ghagaro in the west; and shaya in eastern India),
with a blouse known as a choli or ravika forming the upper garment. The
blouse has short sleeves and a low neck and is usually cropped at the
midriff, and as such is particularly well-suited for wear in the sultry
South Asian summers. Cholis may be backless or of a halter neck style.
These are usually more dressy, with plenty of embellishments such as
mirrors or embroidery, and may be worn on special occasions. Women in
the armed forces, when wearing a sari uniform, don a short-sleeved shirt
tucked in at the waist. The sari developed as a garment of its own in
both South and North India at around the same time, and is in popular
culture an epitome of Indian culture. The sari signified the grace of
Indian women adequately displaying the curves at the right places.The
word sari is derived from Sanskrit शाटी śāṭī which means 'strip of
cloth' and शाडी śāḍī or साडी sāḍī in Prakrit, and which was corrupted to
sāṛī in Hindi. The word 'Sattika' is mentioned as describing women's
attire in ancient India in Buddhist Jain literature called Jatakas. This
could be equivalent to modern day 'Sari'.In the history of Indian
clothing the sari is traced back to the Indus Valley Civilisation, which
flourished during 2800–1800 BC around the western part of the Indian
subcontinent. The earliest known depiction of the sari in the Indian
subcontinent is the statue of an Indus Valley priest wearing a drape.
Ancient Tamil poetry, such as the Silappadhikaram and the Sanskrit work,
Kadambari by Banabhatta, describes women in exquisite drapery or sari.
The ancient stone inscription from Gangaikonda Cholapuram in old Tamil
scripts has a reference to hand weaving. In ancient Indian tradition and
the Natya Shastra (an ancient Indian treatise describing ancient dance
and costumes), the navel of the Supreme Being is considered to be the
source of life and creativity, hence the midriff is to be left bare by
the sari.Sculptures from the Gandhara, Mathura and Gupta schools
(1st–6th century AD) show goddesses and dancers wearing what appears to
be a dhoti wrap, in the "fishtail" version which covers the legs loosely
and then flows into a long, decorative drape in front of the legs. No
bodices are shown.Other sources say that everyday costume consisted of a
dhoti or lungi (sarong), combined with a breast band called 'Kurpasika'
or 'Stanapatta' and occasionally a wrap called 'Uttariya' that could at
times be used to cover the upper body or head. The two-piece Kerala
mundum neryathum (mundu, a dhoti or sarong, neryath, a shawl, in
Malayalam) is a survival of ancient Indian clothing styles. The
one-piece sari is a modern innovation, created by combining the two
pieces of the mundum neryathum.It is generally accepted that wrapped
sari-like garments for lower body and sometimes shawls or scarf like
garment called 'uttariya' for upper body, have been worn by Indian women
for a long time, and that they have been worn in their current form for
hundreds of years. In ancient couture the lower garment was called
'nivi' or 'nivi bandha', while the upper body was mostly left bare.The
works of Kalidasa mentions 'Kurpasika' a form of tight fitting breast
band that simply covered the breasts. It was also sometimes referred to
as 'Uttarasanga' or 'Stanapatta'.The tightly fitted, short blouse worn
under a sari is a choli. Choli evolved as a form of clothing in the 10th
century AD, and the first cholis were only front covering; the back was
always bare but covered with end of saris pallu. Bodices of this type
are still common in the state of Rajasthan.In South India and especially
in Kerala, women from most communities wore only the sari and exposed
the upper part of the body till the middle of the 20th century. Poetic
references from works like Silappadikaram indicate that during the
Sangam period in ancient Tamil Nadu, a single piece of clothing served
as both lower garment and head covering, leaving the midriff completely
uncovered.[Similar styles of the sari are recorded paintings by Raja
Ravi Varma in Kerala. By the mid 19th century, though, bare breasted
styles of the sari faced social revaluation and led to the Upper cloth
controversy in the princely state of Travancore (now part of the state
of Kerala) and the styles declined rapidly within the next half a
century.
No comments:
Post a Comment