Like the speaker in my textiles class at NMI said, clothes have the longest relationship with us. Our parents start making clothes for us even before we are born. And the last thing that goes with us is our clothes. We know it that our clothes define us to an extent. We choose carefully the clothes that we wear for different occasions, at different places, and for different events.
The author of this small book Ancient Indian Costumes takes us through the costumes of ancient India. Roughly a period from 4th BCE to 9th CE. And covering major periods like Maurayan, Shunga, Satvahana, Kushan, and Gupta. This also becomes a journey of the evolution of the clothes or costumes. Along with clothes worn by various types of people during this period, she has also covers the headgear, hairstyles, and jewelry. For clothes, you get the style of draping, wearing, stitching, textiles used, patterns. And weave on textiles and techniques of dying. She has also tried to tell the functionality and usability of the garments though very briefly. All the information is based on the archeological pieces of evidence. That include various sculptures that have been found from various periods of history and the cave paintings, especially the ones at Ajanta.
The description of the costumes is very academic. And can be very boring to read. Unless you are using it as reference information. But why the book is still interesting is the excellent illustrations of the sculptures along with all the details of the costume. You can see what exactly the author meant while describing the costume. And you are also able to relate them to their current day avatars. Next time you watch period dramas and mythological serials, you would be able to place many things or maybe spot discrepancies in the costumes.
The names of the various garments and Jewelry pieces are very interesting. Most of them are no longer in use now. But I could find the meaning of a lot of words that we find in Sanskrit texts. Like I never knew that Keyura that comes while describing the Devi is actually the Baju-band or the armband. Similarly the names of the various types of necklaces like Hemasutra for a gold chain with a precious stone in the center.
Interesting insight into the costumes of the bygone eras…
great article..keep writing more..thanks nithya
Really this is fabulous article.I really liked it very much.The ancient Indian costumes have a very old history which everybody have to know.
This is a nice article.Actually i am doing research on costumes in Indian art,and definately this article has helped me a lot.