History of sari
The word sari is derived from Sanskrit शाटी śāṭīwhich 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.
saris origins are obscure, in part because there are so few historical records in India. Yet, we know that Indians were wearing unsewn lengths of cloth draped around their bodies long before tailored cloths arrived.
One of the earliest depictions of a Sari-like drape covering the entire body dates back to 100 B.C. A North-Indian Terracotts depicts a woman wearing a Sari wound tightly around her entire body in the trouser style.
This elaborate body-hugging style represented in the terracotta may have evolved among India's temple dancers in ancient times to allow their limbs freedom of movement while at the same time maintaining their standards of modesty.
There are many sculptures of Graeco-Indian Gandharan civilization which show a variety of different Sari draping styles.
Tailored clothes arrived in India with the arrival of Muslims. Hindus beleived that any cloth pierced by needles was impure.
It is commonly beleived in India that today's petticoat or "Ghagra" and the blouse or "Choli" which are worn under the Sari are later additions which started with the coming of British in India. Increasing number of upper class women in the early 20th century did adopt items of European style clothing as the fitted blouse and slim petticoat. This was also adopted due to the fashion of transparent chiffon Saris during that particular period. Some of the wives of Indian Kings draped themselves in Saris that were made by Parisian designers.
The concept of beauty in ancient India was that of small waist and large bust and hips, as is evident in the sculptures of those times. And Sari seemed to be the perfect dress to flaunt those proportions as it exposes the waist of a woman and emphasises the waist and bust with the pleated fabric. Sometimes women wore accesories like Girdle(a belt) with elaborate design around their waist to emphasize the hip area.
history of sari(with image view)
The word sari is derived from Sanskrit शाटी śāṭīwhich 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.
saris origins are obscure, in part because there are so few historical records in India. Yet, we know that Indians were wearing unsewn lengths of cloth draped around their bodies long before tailored cloths arrived.
One of the earliest depictions of a Sari-like drape covering the entire body dates back to 100 B.C. A North-Indian Terracotts depicts a woman wearing a Sari wound tightly around her entire body in the trouser style.
This elaborate body-hugging style represented in the terracotta may have evolved among India's temple dancers in ancient times to allow their limbs freedom of movement while at the same time maintaining their standards of modesty.
There are many sculptures of Graeco-Indian Gandharan civilization which show a variety of different Sari draping styles.
Tailored clothes arrived in India with the arrival of Muslims. Hindus beleived that any cloth pierced by needles was impure.
It is commonly beleived in India that today's petticoat or "Ghagra" and the blouse or "Choli" which are worn under the Sari are later additions which started with the coming of British in India. Increasing number of upper class women in the early 20th century did adopt items of European style clothing as the fitted blouse and slim petticoat. This was also adopted due to the fashion of transparent chiffon Saris during that particular period. Some of the wives of Indian Kings draped themselves in Saris that were made by Parisian designers.
The concept of beauty in ancient India was that of small waist and large bust and hips, as is evident in the sculptures of those times. And Sari seemed to be the perfect dress to flaunt those proportions as it exposes the waist of a woman and emphasises the waist and bust with the pleated fabric. Sometimes women wore accesories like Girdle(a belt) with elaborate design around their waist to emphasize the hip area.
history of sari(with image view)
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Woman in sari 230 BCE Satavahana dynasty
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Women in choli (blouse) and antariya CE 320 Gupta Empire
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Kalpasutra manuscript c.1375.
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Girl in Gujarati sari; in this style the loose end is worn on the front
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Woman in Tamil sari; in this style the loose end is wrapped around the waist.
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Girl in Bengali sari; in this style sari is worn without any pleats.
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Painting of a Sinhalese lady wearing A traditional Kandyan saree (osaria)
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Painting of a Kandyan Sinhalese lady wearing A traditional Kandyan saree (osaria)
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Kandyan Sinhalese lady wearing A traditional Kandyan saree (osaria)
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Girl standing in a veranda wearing a Pochampally sari, 1895
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Women in nauvari sari
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Women in Mysore sari
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Girls in Mysore sari; long pleats are trademark of this style.
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Women in sari 1912
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Girl in nauvari sari a form of kachha nivi worn in Maharashtra.
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Tamil nautch dancers wearing kachha nivi sari
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Tamil woman (Akhila) in nivi sari & vaddanam
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Woman in Mysore sari
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Nepalese bride and two women in sari (parsi), 1941
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Women in Gujarati sari
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Dancer in Kerala sari
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