Sari


A sari, saree or sharee is a women's garment from the Indian subcontinent that consists of an unstitched drape varying from in length and in breadth that is typically wrapped around the waist, with one end draped over the shoulder, covering a larger portion of the midriff. There are various styles of sari manufacture and draping, the most common being the Nivi style, which originated in the Deccan region. The sari is worn with a fitted bodice commonly called a choli and a petticoat called ghagra, parkar or ul-pavadai. In the modern Indian subcontinent, the sari is considered a cultural icon.

Etymology

The word sari described in Sanskrit शाटी which means 'strip of cloth' and शाडी or साडी in Pali, and which evolved to in modern Indian languages. The word 'Sattika' is mentioned as describing women's attire in ancient India in Sanskrit literature and Buddhist literature called Jatakas. This could be equivalent to modern day 'Sari'. The term for female bodice, the choli evolved from ancient Stanapatta. Rajatarangini, a tenth-century literary work by Kalhana, states that the choli from the Deccan was introduced under the royal order in Kashmir.
The petticoat is called parkar in Marathi, ulpavadai in Tamil and shaya in Bengali and eastern India. Apart from the standard "petticoat", it may also be called "inner skirt" or an inskirt.

Origins and history

History of sari-like drapery is traced back to the Indus Valley Civilisation, which flourished during 2800–1800 BCE around the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. Cotton was first cultivated and woven in Indian subcontinent around 5th millennium BCE. Dyes used during this period are still in use, particularly indigo, lac, red madder and turmeric. Silk was woven around 2450 BCE and 2000 BCE.
The word 'sari' evolved from 'saatikaa' mentioned in earliest Hindu literature as women's attire. The Sari or Sattika evolved from a three-piece ensemble comprising the Antriya, the lower garment; the Uttariya; a veil worn over the shoulder or the head; and the Stanapatta, a chestband. This ensemble is mentioned in Sanskrit literature and Buddhist Pali literature during the 6th century BCE. This complete three-piece dress was known as Poshak, generic term for costume. Ancient Antriya closely resembled dothi wrap in the "fishtail" version which was passed through legs, covered the legs loosely and then flowed into a long, decorative pleats at front of the legs. It further evolved into Bhairnivasani skirt, today known as ghagri and lehenga. Uttariya was a shawl-like veil worn over the shoulder or head, it evolved into what is known today known as dupatta and ghoonghat. Likewise, Stanapatta evolved into choli by 1st century CE.
The ancient Sanskrit work, Kadambari by Banabhatta and ancient Tamil poetry, such as the Silappadhikaram, describes women in exquisite drapery or sari. In ancient India, although women wore saris that bared the midriff, the Dharmasastra writers stated that women should be dressed such that the navel would never become visible. By which for some time the navel exposure became a taboo and the navel was concealed. In ancient Indian tradition and the Natya Shastra, 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.
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'.
Poetic references from works like Silappadikaram indicate that during the Sangam period in ancient Tamil Nadu in southern India, 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. Numerous sources say that everyday costume in ancient India and till recent times in Kerala consisted of a pleated dhoti or wrap, 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 is a survival of ancient clothing styles. The one-piece sari in Kerala is derived from neighboring Tamil Nadu or Deccan during medieval period based on its appearance on various temple murals in medieval Kerala.
Early Sanskrit literature has a wide vocabulary of terms for the veiling used by women, such as Avagunthana, meaning cloak-veil, Uttariya meaning shoulder-veil, Mukha-pata meaning face-veil and Sirovas-tra meaning head-veil. In the Pratimānātaka, a play by Bhāsa describes in context of Avagunthana veil that "ladies may be seen without any blame in a religious session, in marriage festivities, during a calamity and in a forest". The same sentiment is more generically expressed in later Sanskrit literature. Śūdraka, the author of Mṛcchakatika set in fifth century BCE says that the Avagaunthaha was not used by women everyday and at every time. He says that a married lady was expected to put on a veil while moving in the public. This may indicate that it was not necessary for unmarried females to put on a veil. This form of veiling by married women is still prevalent in Hindi-speaking areas, and is known as ghoonghat where the loose end of a sari is pulled over the head to act as a facial veil.
Based on sculptures and paintings, tight bodices or cholis are believed have evolved between 2nd century BCE to 6th century CE in various regional styles. Early cholis were front covering tied at the back; this style was more common in parts of ancient northern India. This ancient form of bodice or choli are still common in the state of Rajasthan today. Varies styles of decorative traditional embroidery like gota patti, mochi, pakko, kharak, suf, kathi, phulkari and gamthi are done on cholis. In Southern parts of India, choli is known as ravikie which is tied at the front instead of back, kasuti is traditional form of embroidery used for cholis in this region. In Nepal, choli is known as cholo or chaubandi cholo and is traditionally tied at the front.
Red is most favored colour for wedding saris and are traditional garment choice for brides in Indian culture. Women traditionally wore various types of regional handloom saris made of silk, cotton, ikkat, block-print, embroidery and tie-dye textiles. Most sought after brocade silk saris are Banasari, Kanchipuram, Gadwal, Paithani, Mysore, Uppada, Bagalpuri, Balchuri, Maheshwari, Chanderi, Mekhela, Ghicha, Narayan pet and Eri etc. are traditionally worn for festive and formal occasions. Silk Ikat and cotton saris known as Patola, Pochampally, Bomkai, Khandua, Sambalpuri, Gadwal, Berhampuri, Bargarh, Jamdani, Tant, Mangalagiri, Guntur, Narayan pet, Chanderi, Maheshwari, Nuapatn, Tussar, Ilkal, Kotpad and Manipuri were worn for both festive and everyday attire. Tie-dyed and block-print saris known as Bandhani, Leheria/Leheriya, Bagru, Ajrakh, Sungudi, Kota Dabu/Dabu print, Bagh and Kalamkari were traditionally worn during monsoon season. Gota Patti is popular form of traditional embroidery used on saris for formal occasions, various other types of traditional folk embroidery such mochi, pakko, kharak, suf, kathi, phulkari and gamthi are also commonly used for both informal and formal occasion. Today, modern fabrics like polyester, georgette and charmeuse are also commonly used.

Styles of draping

There are more than 80 recorded ways to wear a sari. The most common style is for the sari to be wrapped around the waist, with the loose end of the drape to be worn over the shoulder, baring the midriff. However, the sari can be draped in several different styles, though some styles do require a sari of a particular length or form. Ṛta Kapur Chishti, a Sari historian and recognised textile scholar, has documented 108 ways of wearing a Sari in her book, ‘Saris: Tradition and Beyond’. The book documents the sari drapes across fourteen states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh. The French cultural anthropologist and sari researcher Chantal Boulanger categorised sari drapes in the following families:

Nivi style

The Nivi drape was borne out of necessity to pander to Victorian sensibilities and is a vestige of the colonial past. Jnanadanandini Devi, sister-in-law of Rabindranath Tagore, crafted the Nivi drape and borrowed the blouse and petticoat as a means of fitting into a British dominated social structure while maintaining an Indian identity. The British attempted to formalize the complex Indian culture by fitting it into well-defined stereotypes. The sari did not fit into the ethos of the Victorian era, which prioritized modesty over freedom of movement. The British could not accept the fluidity of Indian culture and felt the need to impose their singular world-view through political and cultural hegemony.
The nivi is today's most popular sari style from Deccan region. The increased interaction with the British saw most women from royal families come out of purdah in the 1900s. This necessitated a change of dress. Maharani Indira Devi of Cooch Behar popularised the chiffon sari. She was widowed early in life and followed the convention of abandoning her richly woven Baroda shalus in favour of the unadorned mourning white as per tradition. Characteristically, she transformed her "mourning" clothes into high fashion. She had saris woven in France to her personal specifications, in white chiffon, and introduced the silk chiffon sari to the royal fashion repertoire.
The chiffon sari did what years of fashion interaction had not done in India. It homogenised fashion across this land. Its softness, lightness and beautiful, elegant, caressing drape was ideally suited to the Indian climate. Different courts adopted their own styles of draping and indigenising the sari. In most of the courts the sari was embellished with stitching hand-woven borders in gold from Varanasi, delicate zardozi work, gota, makaish and tilla work that embellished the plain fabric, simultaneously satisfying both traditional demands and ingrained love for ornamentation. Some images of maharanis in the Deccan show the women wearing a sleeveless, richly embellished waistcoat over their blouses. The Begum of Savanur remembers how sumptuous the chiffon sari became at their gatherings. At some courts, it was worn with jaali, or net kurtas and embossed silk waist length sadris or jackets. Some of them were so rich that the entire ground was embroidered over with pearls and zardozi.
Nivi drape starts with one end of the sari tucked into the waistband of the petticoat, usually a plain skirt. The cloth is wrapped around the lower body once, then hand-gathered into even pleats below the navel. The pleats are tucked into the waistband of the petticoat. They create a graceful, decorative effect which poets have likened to the petals of a flower. After one more turn around the waist, the loose end is draped over the shoulder. The loose end is called the pallu, pallav, seragu, or paita depending on the language. It is draped diagonally in front of the torso. It is worn across the right hip to over the left shoulder, partly baring the midriff. The navel can be revealed or concealed by the wearer by adjusting the pallu, depending on the social setting. The long end of the pallu hanging from the back of the shoulder is often intricately decorated. The pallu may be hanging freely, tucked in at the waist, used to cover the head, or used to cover the neck, by draping it across the right shoulder as well. Some nivi styles are worn with the pallu draped from the back towards the front, coming from the back over the right shoulder with one corner tucked by the left hip, covering the torso/waist. The nivi sari was popularised through the paintings of Raja Ravi Varma. In one of his paintings, the Indian subcontinent was shown as a mother wearing a flowing nivi sari. The ornaments generally accepted by the Hindu culture that can be worn in the midriff region are the waist chains. They are considered to be a part of bridal jewellery.

Professional style of draping

Because of the harsh extremes in temperature on the Indian Subcontinent, the sari fills a practical role as well as a decorative one. It is not only warming in winter and cooling in summer, but its loose-fitting tailoring is preferred by women who must be free to move as their duties require. For this reason, it is the Air India uniform for air hostesses. An air hostess style sari is draped in similar manner to a traditional sari, but most of the pleats are pinned to keep them in place.
Saris are worn as uniforms by the female hotel staff of many five-star luxury hotels in India as the symbol of Indian culture. Similarly, the female politicians of India wear the sari in a professional manner. The women of Nehru–Gandhi family like Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi wear the special blouse for the campaign trail which is longer than usual and is tucked in to prevent any midriff show while waving to the crowds. Stylist Prasad Bidapa has to say, "I think Sonia Gandhi is the country's most stylish politician. But that's because she's inherited the best collection of saris from her mother-in-law. I'm also happy that she supports the Indian handloom industry with her selection." BJP politician Sushma Swaraj maintains her prim housewife look with a pinned-up pallu while general secretary of AIADMK Jayalalithaa wears her saris like a suit of armour.

Bangladesh

Sharee is the national wear of Bangladeshi women. Most women who are married wear sharee as their regular dress while young-unmarried girls wear sharee as an occasional dress.
The sharee is worn by women throughout Bangladesh. Sharee is the most popular dress for women in Bangladesh, both for casual and formal occasion. Although Dhakai Jamdani is worldwide known and most famous to all women who wear sharee but there are also many variety of sharees in Bangladesh. There are many regional variations of them in both silk and cotton. e.g.- Tanta/Tant cotton sharee, Dhakai Banarasi sari, Rajshahi silk, Tangail Sari, Tant sari, Tassar silk sharee, Manipuri sharee and Katan sharee are the most popular in Bangladesh.
It is the uniform of the air hostesses of Biman Bangladesh Airlines.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan women wear saris in many styles. Two ways of draping the sari are popular and tend to dominate: the Indian style and the Kandyan style. The Kandyan style is generally more popular in the hill country region of Kandy from which the style gets its name. Though local preferences play a role, most women decide on style depending on personal preference or what is perceived to be most flattering for their figure.
The traditional Kandyan style consists of a full blouse which covers the midriff completely and is partially tucked in at the front. However, the modern intermingling of styles has led to most wearers baring the midriff. The final tail of the sari is neatly pleated rather than free-flowing. This is rather similar to the pleated rosette used in the Dravidian style noted earlier in the article.
The Kandyan style is considered the national dress of Sinhalese women. It is the uniform of the air hostesses of SriLankan Airlines.
During the 1960s, the mini sari known as 'hipster' sari created a wrinkle in Sri Lankan fashion, since it was worn below the navel and barely above the line of prosecution for indecent exposure. The conservative people described the 'hipster' as "an absolute travesty of a beautiful costume almost a desecration" and "a hideous and purposeless garment".

Nepal

The sari is the most commonly worn women's clothing in Nepal where a special style of sari draping is called haku patasihh. The sari is draped around the waist and a shawl is worn covering the upper half of the sari, which is used in place of a pallu.

Pakistan

In Pakistan, the saris are still popular and worn on special occasions. The Shalwar kameez, however, is worn throughout the country on a daily basis. The sari nevertheless remains a popular garment among the middle and upper class for many formal functions. Saris can be seen worn commonly in metropolitan cities such as Karachi and Islamabad and are worn regularly for weddings and other business types of functions. Saris are also worn by many Muslim women in Sindh to show their status or to enhance their beauty.
The sari is worn as daily wear by Pakistani Hindus, by elderly Muslim women who were used to wearing it in pre-partition India and by some of the new generation who have reintroduced the interest in saris by wearing saree with traditional Muslim head wrap called hijab in many beautiful ways.

Similarities with other Asian clothing

While the sari is typical to traditional wear for women in the Indian subcontinent, clothing worn by women in Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar, Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos resemble it, where a long rectangular piece of cloth is draped around the body. These are different from the sari as they are wrapped around the lower-half of body as a skirt, worn with a shirt/blouse and resemble a sarong, as seen in the Burmese Longyi, Filipino Malong and Tapis, Laotian Xout lao and Suea pat, Thai Sbai and Sinh, Cambodian Sampot and Timorese Tais. Saris, worn predominantly in the Indian subcontinent are usually draped with one end of the cloth fastened around the waist, and the other end placed over the shoulder baring the midriff.

Ornamentation and decorative accessories

Saris are woven with one plain end, two long decorative borders running the length of the sari, and a one to three-foot section at the other end which continues and elaborates the length-wise decoration. This end is called the pallu; it is the part thrown over the shoulder in the nivi style of draping.
In past times, saris were woven of silk or cotton. The rich could afford finely woven, diaphanous silk saris that, according to folklore, could be passed through a finger ring. The poor wore coarsely woven cotton saris. All saris were handwoven and represented a considerable investment of time or money.
Simple hand-woven villagers' saris are often decorated with checks or stripes woven into the cloth. Inexpensive saris were also decorated with block printing using carved wooden blocks and vegetable dyes, or tie-dyeing, known in India as bhandani work.
More expensive saris had elaborate geometric, floral, or figurative ornaments or brocades created on the loom, as part of the fabric. Sometimes warp and weft threads were tie-dyed and then woven, creating ikat patterns. Sometimes threads of different colours were woven into the base fabric in patterns; an ornamented border, an elaborate pallu, and often, small repeated accents in the cloth itself. These accents are called buttis or bhuttis. For fancy saris, these patterns could be woven with gold or silver thread, which is called zari work.
Sometimes the saris were further decorated, after weaving, with various sorts of embroidery. Resham work is embroidery done with coloured silk thread. Zardozi embroidery uses gold and silver thread, and sometimes pearls and precious stones. Cheap modern versions of zardozi use synthetic metallic thread and imitation stones, such as fake pearls and Swarovski crystals.
In modern times, saris are increasingly woven on mechanical looms and made of artificial fibres, such as polyester, nylon, or rayon, which do not require starching or ironing. They are printed by machine, or woven in simple patterns made with floats across the back of the sari. This can create an elaborate appearance on the front, while looking ugly on the back. The punchra work is imitated with inexpensive machine-made tassel trim. Fashion designer Aaditya Sharma declared, "I can drape a sari in 54 different styles".
Hand-woven, hand-decorated saris are naturally much more expensive than the machine imitations. While the overall market for handweaving has plummeted, hand-woven saris are still popular for weddings and other grand social occasions.

Sari outside the Indian subcontinent

The traditional sari made an impact in the United States during the 1970s. Eugene Novack who ran the New York store, Royal Saree House told that he had been selling it mainly to the Indian women in New York area but later many American business women and housewives became his customers who preferred their saris to resemble the full gown of the western world. He also said that men appeared intrigued by the fragility and the femininity it confers on the wearer. Newcomers to the sari report that it is comfortable to wear, requiring no girdles or stockings and that the flowing garb feels so feminine with unusual grace.
The sari has gained its popularity internationally because of the growth of Indian fashion trends globally. Many Bollywood celebrities, like Aishwarya Rai, have worn it at international events representing the Indian culture. In 2010, Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone wanted to represent her country at an international event, wearing the national costume. On her very first red carpet appearance at the Cannes International Film Festival, she stepped out on the red carpet in a Rohit Bal sari.
International celebrities have worn traditional sari attire designed by Indian fashion designers. Pamela Anderson made a surprise guest appearance on Bigg Boss, the Indian version of Big Brother, dressed in a sari that was specially designed for her by Mumbai-based fashion designer Ashley Rebello. Ashley Judd donned a purple sari at the YouthAIDS Benefit Gala in November 2007 at the Ritz Carlton in Mclean, Virginia. There was an Indian flavour to the red carpet at the annual Fashion Rocks concert in New York, with designer Rocky S walking the ramp along with Jessica, Ashley, Nicole, Kimberly and Melody – the Pussycat Dolls – dressed in saris. in 2014, American singer Selena Gomez was seen in a sari for an UNICEF charity event at Nepal.
In the United States, the sari has recently became politicised with the digital-movement, "Sari, Not Sorry". Tanya Rawal-Jindia, a gender studies professor at University of California, Riverside, initiated this anti-xenophobia fashion-campaign on Instagram.

Types

While an international image of the modern style sari may have been popularised by airline flight attendants, each region in the Indian subcontinent has developed, over the centuries, its own unique sari style. Following are other well-known varieties, distinct on the basis of fabric, weaving style, or motif, in the Indian subcontinent:

Central styles

and Rajasthan.