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Category Archives: Indian Clothing

Rann of Kutch: right out of a fairytale

17 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by opus125 in Indian Art, Indian Clothing, Indian Festivals

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Tags

Gulf of Kutch, India, Rann of Kutch, Rannustav Fstival, Thar desert

monsoon-lake

The beauty of the white desert shimmers in the moonlight.  By day, a “desolate area of unrelieved, sun-baked saline clay desert, shimmering with the images of a perpetual mirage.”[1] Equally, there is also a darker side, of salt cured labourers lugging sacks of salt for merchants and vibrant embroidered colour.

During monsoon, the region is covered in water, and over winter, the water evaporates leaving a salty crust that must be seen to be believed.
The salt crunched beneath our feet as we walked on it, and some of the earth gave way beneath us where the water had still not entirely dissipated after monsoon.  Before us we could see nothing but pure white land that melted into the horizon.  There were no people or buildings in sight, it was like we had reached the end of the earth.
In what is one of the most inhospitable places on earth, you can even stay in a tent overnight and wake up to this beautiful sight.

Rakhee Ghelani

walkingsaltplains

One of the world’s largest seasonal marsh lands, once shallows of the Arabian Sea, turn into desert during the dry season. Crossing Gujuruat and Sindh Pakistan, 30,000 square km of encrusted salt between the Gulf of Kutch and the Indus River, it is the only large flooded grasslands zone in the Indo-Malayan region.

Flamingo-City

Perhaps the bleakest, dustiest, and hottest region in India, sitting along the Tropic of Cancer at the end of the at the end of the Luni River, draining the the Aravalli Hills, the Great Rann of Kutch is refuge for the last population of the endangered Asiatic wild ass (Equus hermionus) and supports the one of the world’s largest breeding colonies of the greater and lesser flamingos.

A lake since the Mesozoic, when geological uplift created a vast lake still navigable when Alexander the Great invaded it has since silted into a a vast, saline mudflat.

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Yet, during the full moon in winter, the festival of Rann utsav draws tourists to dazzling white salt encrusted desert plains.  At Dhorodo in the Banni grasslands, a tent village rises from the sand for the festival. Fringing the Great Rann of Kutch, camel carts take tourists to the salt flats. Food is served in the desert wilderness accompanied by Sindhi Bhajans and Sufi songs.

Many seek the deserts of Rajasthan, but comparatively few cross  the Thar desert to witness the magical sunset over salt white sands. Gujrurat’s promotion of Rannustav seeks to change that. Close to the Pakistan order, you will pass several security checks on your visit.

ranofkutchsunset

Stay for sunset – it’s magical.

The silence of salt white sand is almost a spiritual experience. You almost need to pick up a handful of sand o remind yourself its salt. The blinding white desert looks like snow but the weather is hot.

As the sun starts to set, the mountain slowly changes from red to grey to black and you will witness the salt reflecting these changing colours of the sun.  In some parts, the monsoon water can still be seen, creating a little island in the middle of the salt desert. The sun reflected on the edge of the water, in a ring of bright blue.

I have never seen a landscape like this before. Where the Bolivian salt desert looks like a lunar landscape, Kutch looked like it came straight out of a fairytale, the salt flats glistened steely blue, they felt like you could ice skate on them ever so gracefully. As eagles soared above, the view was both spectacular and peaceful. As the sun came down in a brilliant blaze of orange, I reflected on just how large the world was, and perhaps how I had finally seen a part of the world that felt like it was right on the edge, where past the horizon you could almost fall right off.

– Rakhee Ghelani

Kutch_2

oulookIndia.com

 

Near Dhorodo the Dattatray Temple sits in the Kala Dungar, or Black Hills, only 462 metres it is one of the Kutch districts  highest points, but easily climbed. Desolate and bouldered, below is the panorama of salt, you can trek scrub among bulbuls and larks or watch the dramatic feeding of golden jackals at the temple.  As the priests call out “Lo-Aang, Lo-Aang”, packs of jackal come to feast from the temple offerings of rice and jaggary.

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The pastoral villages of the Banni grasslands also produce some of India’s finest hand embroidery.

Loneyplanet.in

Loneyplanet.in

“Suf embroidery is counted on the warp and weft of the cloth in a surface satin stitch worked from the back. Motifs are never drawn. Each artisan imagines her design, then counts it out in reverse, thus requiring much detailing. The craftswomen fill symmetrical patterns with tiny triangles, and accent stitches. Khaarek is a geometric style also counted and precise. Paako is a tight square chain and double buttonhole stitch embroidery, often with black slanted satin stitch outlining. The motifs of paako, sketched in mud with needles, are primarily floral and generally arranged in Riding these decorated camels on the white sands of the Kutch is an unequalled experience With a steady hand, a plain piece of wood quickly turns into a vibrant art before your eyes .

aditirindani.wordpress.com

aditirindani.wordpress.com

The mesmerising  rainbow of colour adorns women exquisitely dressed in embroidery made in their  homes of picturesque mud-plastered round houses called bhungas lovingly decorated with hand-paintings and mirror inlays.

Each village has its own style of embroidery, the colours of culture glisten heavily embroidered attire. Kutch is one of the most colourful regions of India and offers a glimpse of Gujarat at her exotic best.  A rich repertoire of woodcarving, leather crafts and pottery also thrive in the Banni villages.

Bhuj, Indiamike.com

From the walled city of Bhuj, Medieval forts to the the modern city of Gandhidham, majestic palaces, historic ports, temples, monasteries and pretty beach of Mandvi are close by.

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Or visit the sacred lake of Narayan Sarovar, the shore temple of Koteshwar, the Ashapura Mata-no-Madh temple, a number of Jain Derasars, the Gurdvara at Lakhpat and Sufi shrines.

Lakhpat once a port on the Arabian sea at the junction of Kori creek and Rann of Kutch. It was abandoned after the 1819 AD strong earthquake which changed the flow of  Sindhu (Indus) River

Lakhpat once a port on the Arabian sea at the junction of Kori creek and Rann of Kutch. It was abandoned after the 1819 AD strong earthquake which changed the flow of Sindhu (Indus) River

[1] Cubitt and Mountfort 1991

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Sari’s, Servants and Social Status

21 Monday Jul 2014

Posted by opus125 in Caste & Social position, Indian Clothing

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handme down sari, maids, sari

sari bike 2

from Mukulika BanerjeeThe Sari, (2003, Berg, Oxford)

A beautiful sari is a delight to behold at formal occasions like weddings or India’s many festivals. Historically, dress has always revealed a lot about a persons social position. I have found no more complicated example that the tradition of handing down worn saris to maids in a quasi family relationship.

Consider:  The mistress of the house edits her sari collection. Perhaps an older woman is gifted too many expensive saris by her daughter.  She cant refuse them but as an older woman she prefers soften thinner clothing than the new heavier textiles.

But sadly a maid is rarely asked what she wants to wear, leading to misunderstandings and tensions.

The mistress no doubt believes she has discriminating taste but believes her poorer maid lacks taste ability to chose well, instead assuming the girl enters a store to buy a maids sari set by budgetary limits probably synthetic and not, she assumes, of cotton.

Rarely are the assumptions justified. True, a maid probably admit a synthetic cotton is suited to her work but would be delighted by a more delicate but not necessarily more expensive sari.
A maid must balance her mistress expectations with the village expectations, still held by her family, and the town where she works. Frequent harvest and life cycle festivals require her frequent return home, where gifting is an expected ritual. From the city, a village family probably expect their daughter to return from the rich city with classier gifts.
This is rarely understood by the mistress. A maid working in several homes may be the primary source of saris in an impoverished village!

The incessant demands of the village pressure the girl. Unfortunately the mistress may interpret this as proof the girl is greedy.  The young maid cannot return home to modern without censure, and yet if she returns home in to homely a fashion relatives assume she must be wasteful.

Mukulika Banerjee illustrates in her wonderful book The Sari, (2003, Berg, Oxford) illustrates the problem:

“A kindly employer had given her maid, Lakshmi, an expensive off-white Bengal handloom sari with a woven zari border. The maids experience in the city allowed her to appreciate its quality, and she treasured having it in her trunk. After some time she travelled to the countryside to visit first her in-laws and then her mother. But her disapproving mother in law and sister in law made her change it. They felt there would be talk in the village because it looked like an old garment, the colours pallid and seemingly faded. Lakshmi felt they didn’t like it because even though the sari had green, yellow and white stripes on a cream base with a yellow and zari border, it did not have any ‘designs’ or ‘flowers’ on it. Lakshmi felt contempt at the way a much cheaper and older sari, with loud flowers, met with more approval. She passed on the expensive sari to her mother who, being a widow, was unlikely to encounter such censure for its gentle colours.”

Another difficulty occurs because a mistress who dresses up for functions may want to relax into unstarched, sari a little unkempt. The maid will smartly dress for work which may threaten the mistress. She in turn ensures the hand me downs reflect the girls lower social status.

Another mistress may demand her girls to dress up to show the style and respectability of her house.

There has been a shift as maids now negotiate more openly for saris that better suit there needs. Some mistresses even giving money so the maid can by what she needs instead.

Though perhaps well intentioned the convoluted and contradictory projections of staff patronage remain.

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How 4000 years made the whole nine yards of Sari

18 Friday Jul 2014

Posted by opus125 in Indian Clothing

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indian clothing, Indus Civilization, nivi, sari

monalisa_saree

From Saree Dreams  

“Other clothing is on you, but it is not with you. But the sari is with me. I have to constantly handle it. I just can’t let it lie. The whole thing creates movement and one is moving with it all the time. That is why the pallu is not stitched. And that is the grace of the sari.” – Deena Pathak, Actress

Infinitely flexible   it is protects a woman of the sun or her modesty, can be used to quickly wipe a table, lift hot pot from the stove, filter out smog or wipe sweat from the brow. The sari is the most personal of clothes.   Its sensual caress on the skin connects you to an inner and outer world.

… and you never grow to big for it!

In modern times the nivi style, draped from right to left, twice passing the lower body, no part of the body is caressed or touched the same way. The weight of the pallu on the left shoulder tihhtens across the right breast, the left feeling exposed but for a camisole or choli that reveals the navel around which the whole garment revolves.

Wear the petticoat to high and she is compared to a nun. Too low and she is to “filmy” Gold threads can irritate the navel, sweat trickle down legs but are pleasurably cooled by the air.

The epitome of graceful movement, it is the most sensuous of intimate garments and the garment of road workers. The pallu can make girl coy peep hole of folded cloth, cover her laughing smile, reveal subtle decorum or be erotically draw attention to her eyes and lips.

But from where did the sari start?

Small terra cotta images Indus valley civilization (2300-1750) display fabric around hips sarong like gathered or pleated at the front below the navel in a girdle or kamarband (belt, knotted chord). Women were jewellery, lip stick and bracelets.

Except a small fragment of woven material, pasted inside the lid of a silver  vase, and a bundle of mordant dyed cotton thread, no Harappan thread remains.

The word sari is found is found in ancient literature but the modern style over the lower body only are not as the modern sari. However, some suggest it derives from the Prakrit word Sattika, later morphed into the word sari.

Draped garments , shawls and scarves existed in the Vedic era (1500-450 BCE) and the Vedas mention a strip of cloth worn above the knees called nivi, “gathered”, which was possibly like short garments above.

In the 4 century BCE a nivi was worn with an ankle length lungi-like a skirt and an upper body cover , adivasa, and a scarf like over garment overhang.

However, the scholar Fabri suggests the modern sari evolved not from the nivi but from the dupatta or scarf that lengthened over time.

Also, by 320 BCE a sari like wrapped garment was worn with one free end called a pallu, to cover the upper body. By the second cent CE the pallu came to be over the head as elaborate headdresses became less fashionable.

amarvati hairstyles IMG_9859

Hairstyles: from a plaque at Sanchi, tomb of the Buddha originally from Mauryan Emperor Ashoka

But was there a Greek influence? Softly draped Greek garments were bought to India by the Greek wife of Chandragupta Maurya (ruled c323-298 BC) founder of the first great Indian empire. During the reign of his grandson Ashoka ( c272-231 BCE) both sexes wore one peace draped garments.

Sculptures from subsequent Sunga and Kushan periods show prototype saris and in Ghandara (now northern Pakistan) under the Kushans (late 1 – -3rd century CE). Sculptures from the Gandhara, Mathura and Gupta schools (1st–6th century CE) show a dhoti like wrap, loosely covering the legs with a long flowing drape and no bodices.

We find images are clothed in “saris” wrapped around waste, with a free end either pleated or tucked into back waistband, or thrown across the upper body or shoulder. Variation’s of this theme developed to culminate in the modern sari in the 18th century.

Today’s, modern sari may be plain or woven, generally 5 to 8.2 metres in length, and is draped by personal or regional considerations. It is worn with a long slip and a choli, a tight fitting blouse, leaving bare midriff. It is usually fasten to the front, but some are backless and tied chord at neck and lower back. In earlier times, garments with the same name used as breast supports.

The Rig Veda talks of cloth of “shining gold” and silk garments with gold thread favoured by Hindus. Possibly gold leaf was wrapped around a core, probably silk, to create metallic threads. Even to this day silk brocades with floral motifs, kimkhah, have delicate woven gold. The most famous from Banares other centres Hyderabad, Bombay, and Madras.

origin-of-the-saree

 

What I would like to believe comes from a legend reported at sareedreams.com:

“The Sari, it is said, was born on the loom of a fanciful weaver. He dreamt of  a woman. The shimmer of her tears. The drape of her tumbling hair. The colors of her many moods. The softness of her touch. All these he wove together. He couldn’t stop. He wove for many yards. And when he was done, the story goes, he sat back and smiled and smiled and smiled”.

 

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Lower caste men don’t admire the body of a Princess!

25 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by opus125 in Caste & Social position, Indian Clothing, Indian History

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

burqa, palanquin, palki

the_bride_in_the_palanquin_di57 (1)

In the past. heavily curtained palkis were a status symbol of Afghans, Persians, Turkey and Moghals. To spare them from walking, Hindu ladies of noble birth only ever ventured outside of the home carried on a palanquin.

In the hot climate it was considered perfectly proper for woman to dress scantily in the presence of family.

However it was improper for lower caste men admire a princess body. In the hot climate it was common for the ladies to be near nude behind the heavy curtain of the palkis. Why wear heavy public clothing behind a curtain?

Purdah means curtain, a word that in modern media is associated mainly with Islam.    It refers to public behaviour.  Muslim women are enjoined to draw the “curtain of modesty.”

Historian Samina Quraeshi (Legacy of the Indus – A Discovery of Pakistan: 113) quotes an aging lady to her grandniece “Guard your eyes. When visitors come, smile your eyes of welcome to them; but drop your eyes immediately afterward, so that your smile may not be construed as an unchaste invitations.”

 While the Burqa has made news in recent decades – I suggest elsewhere because of the rise of Nationalism expressed in some lands through woman’s dress – it is not the dress of the majority of Muslim women, where “figure-molding looseness” is not unflattering . Quraeshi describes the burqa as a device of anonymity and not modesty.

The burqa “is not the ‘purda’ of modesty enjoined on women.”

 So where did the burqa come from? Not from the African yashmaq but rather from princess in palkis.  To  remain in a palkis could be awkward so women carried  their own head to ankle palanquin.  The design soon spread to courtiers and scribes.

Now modern wealth mostly discard it, the burqa continues with some in the middle class.

Western critics of the Burqa often fail to realize that todaythe burqa is a political act against perceived political discrimination from the West. In both East and West, women’s bodies have been dressed (or undressed) by the politics of men.

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