Naari-Magazine aug edition

SERIES
Yards of
Elegance
How many of you remember the day when
you touched a saree?
I think my first acquaintance would have
been with my mom’s saree when she fed me as
soon as I was born.
If I brood over my lifeline, I can extend these
saree acquaintances one after the other. First,
it would be sleeping and playing on my mom’s
lap twisting and turning the saree ends while
drinking milk. Then comes playing on the mom’s
saree cradle. Next would be hiding behind the
pallu of my mom’s saree when anybody comes
home and so on. A Saree is something that is
very personal to me. Isn’t it with you too?
100sareepact, the saree sisters of Hong Kong
encouraged us to write about saree as a fashion
feature in our inaugural issue of NAARI – The
woman and thereafter. Every woman who has
ever worn a saree would have many interesting
stories. However, how many of us actually know
the story of the saree? So, I thought that I would
start with the history of saree briefly.
While doing the research to write about sarees,
I cannot stop myself going deeper and deeper
into the hunt on facts about sarees. It took weeks
of homework before writing this article.
Try to bring the scene from Epic Mahabaratha
into your mind.
With the raised hands up, “Hey Krishna… save
me from this humiliation” shouted Dhraupadi
when Dushasan was pulling her saree to
humiliate her in the court of Duryodana.
Krishna, the savior God saves her by extending
the saree to the extent that Dushasan got tired
pulling the saree.
This episode of Vastraharan is a true proof
of our Indian women wearing sarees from 4th
Century BC. Historians say that it there should
have been well developed garments in the
period of oldest civilizations of earth starting
from Indus Valley, Harappan, Greek, Greeks,
Egyptian, Assyrian and Sumerian. We could see
that men and women both wore only a waist
cloth for a long time. The upper garment is
a recent addition. It is difficult to say when it
started. However, we could see in the Ajanta
caves of 2nd century that, a helper wearing the
upper garment.
Many sculptures of India depict women
wearing waist cloth with the upper part of the
body adorned with a variety of jewellery.
Bhurhut Stupa
Didarganj Yakshini Belur Sirpur
14 | NAARI - THE WOMAN