The history of textile manufacture in Bengal goes back to the
remotest antiquity. Long before the birth of Christ, the fame of the textile craft
of Bengal had already spread throughout India and abroad. It was reported in Chanakya’s
(also known as Kautilya and Vishnugupta) Arthasastra (4th century
BC), in Periplus and in the accounts of Arab, Chinese and Italian travellers.
Chanakya mentions
of four varieties of textile commodities which were produced in his time:
- Kshauma – This was a variety of linen, the raw material being common flax, hemp, etc. It was of a coarse variety and was mixed with cotton. The chief seats of manufacture were Pundravardhana (North Bengal) and Benares.
- Dukala – This was a pure and finer form of linen. It had three varieties:
§ The first variety produced in Vangaka (Lower Bengal) was white
and soft
§ The second, produced in Pundra (North Bengal) was of dark colour
and sparkled like a jewel
§ The third variety manufactured at Suvarnakundya in Kamarupa, had
the colour of rising sun.
- Patrorna – This appears to be wild silk of bleached variety and was white in colour. According to Kautilya, it was produced by the saliva of a worm on the leaves of Naga, Likucha, Vakula and and Vata trees. This cloth was produced in Magadha, Pundra and Suvarnakundya in Kamarupa. The production of wild silk of the best quality still continues in these districts.
- Karpasika – Cotton fabric. Vanga produced the best variety.
“PERIPLUS OF THE
ERYTHRAEN SEA”, written in the 1st century AD reports of “muslins of the finest sorts” were
exported from Bengal. Sulaiman, an Arab merchant of the 9th century
reports to have personally witnessed “a
stuff made in this country which is not found elsewhere; so fine and delicate
is this material that a dress made of it may be passed through a signet ring”
and it was made of cotton.
Probably in the 12th or 13th century, the
poet Subhanka mentions that the women in the homes of poor Brahmans cleaned and
carded cotton thread. The looms were made by Dom women. Around the same time,
an anonymous poet of the Saduktikarnamrta mentioned the fine clothes of the
Bengali harlots.
Marco Polo’s report from the 13th century speaks of
the lucrative trade of cotton that was prevalent in Bengal then.
In the 14th century, Jyotirisvara, in his
Varnaratnakara, referred to such fine muslin and silk cloth as megha udumbara,
ganga-sagara and laksmivilasa produced in Srihatta and in the Gangetic plain.
In the 15th century, a Chinese traveller, Ma Huan,
witnessed five or six varieties of textile goods being manufactured in this
province.
The cultivation of silkworms for producing quality silk and
production of cotton textiles were the principal crafts of ancient Bengal.
There was also trade in jute cloth, or linen, and for various purposes such as
rituals, asceticism and weddings the trade in linen was an extensive one.
After looking into the various fabrics that were available, we
would now endeavour to look into the garments that were worn by the people.
Since Bengal has semitropical climate, the clothes worn had to be in tandem
with the weather. The attire of the people of Bengal cannot be considered in
isolation. Ingress of people from all directions of the compass to Bengal has
had effects on the garments used by the Bengali over the ages.
Wrapped and draped garments appear to be the oldest form of
attire in South Asia. Nevertheless, awls found at archaeological sites of
Harappan civilisation, in the Indus Valley (3rd millennium BC)
indicate that leather stitching and embroidery were practiced there. Stitched
garments entered the region with ancient migrations of people from Central
Asia. Possibly tailoring was practised
in that period.
The first form of clothing from the Vedic times (1500 – 500 BC) happened
as a form of protection for the males and as a chastity belt for the women. It
was the loin cloth – Kaupina (also
termed as kachcha), a distinct Indian
form of clothing from ancient times. It was a loin cloth passed between the
legs and held by a string at the waist, just enough to cover the private parts.
This form of dress is still used by the mendicants and wrestlers.
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MAN IN KAUPINA |
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ANTARIYA, UTTARIA AND KAYABANDHA
Chandra Gupta Maurya (324 – 301 BC) and his grandson, Ashok
(273 – 232 BC) forged contacts with Central Asia, China and the Greek world.
Chandra Gupta married a Greek princess and had Greek women bodyguards. The
presence of Greek women at the Mauryan court possibly had significant
consequences on the history of dress.
Chiton, the dress of Greek ladies is possibly the predecessor of the sari. Chiton is a single piece of cloth wrapped around the body and
pinned at the two shoulders and held at the waist by means of a string.
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CHITON |
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HOW A CHITON WAS WORN |
In ancient times, the custom of wearing stitched garments was
not observed in east, south or west India. It was usual to wear a single
unstitched piece of cloth. The unstitched single piece of cloth evolved due to
ancient Hindu belief that stitching cloth made it impure. And so the four and
half to eight meters of cloth draped around the lower body and then with a
tactful pleating process folded across the upper body, came to be the
appropriate attire. The religious significance of sewing being inauspicious is
observed even to this day during religious ceremonies – the priest always wears
unstitched garments.
For many centuries before, the people of Bengal had moved around
self consciously nude above the waist. But, during the Mauryan period, a
definite shift was observed. There were probably two reasons for the change.
One was that the female attendants in the King’s court, thrown into company of
beautiful foreigners who wore upper garments, must have realised that covering
the bosom could be more attractive than exposing it, and accordingly emulated
the dress style of the foreigners. The second was the impact of Buddhism and
Jainism. The belief that the body was sinful and had to be concealed to avoid
temptation was spreading amongst the common people.
An attire used by the Bengali man, fatua, lacks mention anywhere.
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KANCUKA |
The kancuka, shown
above may be considered to be the predecessor of the fatua. This was a stitched piece of garment, worn by attendants,
grooms, guards and the common man during the Mauryan period.
The Sunga age, which was present in Bengal from 185 to 73 BC was also remarkable for the evolution of dress. Generally, two
types of garments were worn by the male, one to cover the upper part, uttariya and the second for the lower
part, antariya. Different ways of wearing the antariya is visible on the Dwarpala (guard at gate) figures at the gates of Sanchi Stupa.
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DWARPALA, EASTERN GATE, SANCHI STUPA |
The different styles of wearing the antariya are visible on the dwarpala
at the eastern and northern gates. The emphasis given to the transparency
of the cloth is noteworthy on the dwarpala
at the western gate.
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DWARPALA, NORTHERN GATE, SANCHI STUPA |
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DWARPALA, WESTERN GATE, SANCHI STUPA |
Sewn garments are visible on the Warrior Combating with Lion, the soldier wearing a frock like. The
garment consists of sleeved tunic with crossed straps on the chest to carry the
quiver and a leather belt to carry the sword.
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WARRIOR COMBATING WITH LION, SANCHI STUPA, VEDIKA, NORTHERN ENTRANCE |
The Gupta
Dynasty ruled over Bengal from 240 – 550 AD. Chandragupta I, the
grandson of the founder of the dynasty, Sri Gupta, reigned from 305 to 355 AD.
Stitched garments were popular during this period and were considered to be a
sign of royalty. But the dhoti, uttariya, sari and orana, the wrap
around clothes were still very much in use by the common folk of Bengal.
It is believed
that it was during the Gupta Dynasty, that the style of draping the sari from the kaccha style to the lungi
style occurred. The antariya was worn
as a wide garment reaching under the armpits from mid-thigh in simple
wraparound clothing. The main difference in the Gupta period, as distinct from
the previous periods, is that the kachcha
style became less popular with women, being replaced gradually by the more
feminine lehenga or lungi style, though the queen and other
ladies of the royal family remained conservative.
As is evident
from many Ajanta paintings, women used to wear only the lower garment in those
times, leaving the bust part bare. Later on various kinds of blouses (cholis) evolved. Some of them had
strings attached leaving the back open while another design in use had strings
for tying in the front.
During Gupta
period, men used to have long hair with curls and this was popularly known as gurna kuntala. Women used to decorate
their hair with ringlets, jewelled bands or chaplets of flowers. They often
made a bun on the top of head or low on the neck, bedecked with flowers.
The dhoti and the sari were the usual dress of the Bengali
man and woman. Some wealthy people used a second piece of unstitched cloth as
an upper garment. For men it was the uttariya
and for the women the orana. The orana could also be used as a hood, but the ordinary ladies made
good of the single piece of sari they
wore and used to draw the surplus end to serve as head cover.
Surprisingly, the origin of another piece of wraparound cloth, which is very important to a Bengali, the gamcha is not available. Widely used all over Bengal and an
integral part of daily life of the Bengali, it has many uses. Made from coarse
cotton fabric, in Bengal it is used as a towel, a head cover or as a cummerbund
or uttariya, as the situation demands,
for the common folk. It is also part and parcel of any religious ceremony and holds
an important place in the offerings to God.
The word dhoti is
derived from the Sanskrit word “dhauti”,
which means to clean and wash. In the context of clothing, it simply refers to
the cleansed garment which was worn during religious ceremonies. The exact date
of origin of dhoti is not known, but
it can be traced back to the Indus Valley Civilisation.
The word sari
is derived from the Sanskrit word “sati”
which means ‘strip of cloth’ and sadi
in Pali. The word sattika is
mentioned as describing women’s attire in ancient India in Sanskrit literature
and Buddhist literature called Jatakas.
The sari can be traced back to the
Indus Valley Civilisation.
The ancient Bengali men did not wear the end of
the dhoti hanging to the ankle as is
the fashion today. In ancient times the dhoti
was considerably shorter in width as well as in length. Normally the width of
the cloth extended only to the knee. The middle of the dhoti was wrapped at the waist and the two ends were drawn together
at the back: the cloth was fastened at the waist with two or three tucks just
below the navel where the fastening knot hung. Some men tucked one end of the dhoti behind them, the other end being
folded and hung in front.
The Bengali women’s method of wearing the sari was almost the same as it is today.
The sari was wider than the dhoti of those days, the width reaching
the ankle, and the end of the cloth was not tucked in at the back. Bengali women
today fasten the nether garment at the waist by one ot more tucks, as was
practised in the ancient times. But the ancient women did not use the end of
the sari as an upper garment as is
done today, the custom being for the upper part of the body to remain bare.
But, some of the towns-women and those of the wealthy classes, influenced by
the culture and customs of central and north-west India, covered part of the
upper part of the body with an orana,
or concealed their breasts with a choli.
Others wore a kind of blouse or bodice. The tradition of keeping the upper half
of a woman’s body uncovered was not restricted to Bengal, but was customary
among all ancient proto-Australoid, Polynesian and Melanesian communities.
Modesty has had different definiitons over time
and different regions and communities. It was not always about covering ones
body and in many respects Bengal’s hot and humid climate led the people to decide
what was convenient to wear.
It is evident from Vatsayana (2nd century) that a
veiled life was the general rule in the women’s apartments of the upper
classes. Respectable women, when going outside, would cover themselves from the
view of passers-by. Nevertheless, for women working at the market or in the
fields or on some kind of physical labour, there was no opportunity or
necessity to be veiled, nor did such women have any respect for custom. Middle
class women veiled themselves, though, seeing this as one means of expressing
their family dignity.
Contemporary illustrated manuscripts show that
the woman’s upper garment and sari
and also the men’s dhoti were printed
in various kinds of floral and geometric designs. Intricate ornamental designs
of Iran and Central Asia often appear in these designs.
For gatherings and special occasions, certain
kinds of clothing were considered appropriate for particular purposes. In the
Dayabhaga, Jimutavahana described the kinds of clothing worn on various
occasions. Dancing women wore tight-fitting ankle length pajamas and long orana
draped around the shoulders. Ascetics and society’s low-caste labourers wore
loin cloths. Soldiers and wrestlers wore close fitting thigh length pajamas, as
did ordinary workmen. Children may have worn knee length dhoti, tight pajamas or loin cloth tied around the waist depending
on the station of their parents.
The lungi,
in its present form, worn as a printed stitched tubular wraparound, is not
originally from Bengal. It is believed to have been introduced to present day
Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu between the 6th and 10th
century AD, during the rule of the Chola dynasty, by traders and sailors who
brought it with them from Southeast Asia, according to Sumantra Basu, Assistant
Professor at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Kolkata. According
to him, “There is no history of a tubular garment with colours and prints in
India before that”.
The lungi
travelled along the east coast of India and made its way to Odisha and Bengal.
That is one reason why the lungi is
still popular in most coastal towns. Most places where lungi is popular have intense heat and humidity, which call for
loose fitting apparels. (2)
The ancient Bengali wore no headgear, as is the case today,
although the head was ornamented by various skilfully arranged hairstyles. Men
also let their hair grow long like a mane. Women fastened their mass of long
hair above the neck in a bun. Some let it hang loose behind the head. Ascetics
arranged their matted hair in layers above the head. Children had their hair
tied above their head.
Muslim rule started in Bengal with the Khalji Maliks, followed
by Mamlek rule, Mahmud Shah dynasty, a span of rule by the Delhi Turk
Sultanate, followed by the Shahi dynasty in two phases with Raja Gobinda and
his converted Muslim son and grandson in between, Habshi rule, Hussain Shahi
dynasty, Suri dynasty and the Karrani Dynasty spanning from 1204 AD to 1576 AD.
The effect on the attire during this period was minimal. The reason was possibly that Hinduism had
made very deep in roads and was well established, Buddhism and Jainism having
lost a lot of ground. Hindus considered the foreigners as mlechchas (impure). As a consequence, the cultural effect on
clothes of Bengal was quite minimal.
Bengal came under the Mughal rule in the 15th century
during Akbar’s reign. With the establishment of Mughal rule, a blend of Persian
and ancient Indian artistic sensibilities can be seen in clothing. With the
Persian influence, a majority of stitched garments entered India. Pyjamas were introduced. Though they did
not replace the dhoti in Bengal, they were
worn. There were various types – loose, tight and very tight and each had its
utility; there were different types of pyjamas
for men and women, the cut, style and ornamentation also varied. The uttariya still remained, though various
tunics like kurtas and angrakhas were added both for men and
women. It is noteworthy, that in spite of such major influences, the Bengali
continued to wear their traditional unstitched garments. The climate of north
suited the textile, clothes and style adopted by the Mughal. But down south in
the hot humid Bengal, these clothes were grossly unsuitable.
The kurta was given a
Bengali twist – it was sewn from thinner material and the Bengali Babu’s panjabi was born and even today is being
worn with the dhoti or pyjama.
The impact of European clothing on India was gradual. In the 17th
and 18th centuries, many European men adopted Indian dress and
married or lived with Indian women. The arrival of substantial numbers of
European women in the mid to late nineteenth century brought about a change of
lifestyles. The formation of colonial government and the evolution of a formal
social life led to a more formal dress code. The Indian civil servants,
soldiers, and students were expected to dress accordingly. The Bengali elite
adopted the western mode of dress, while the middle class blended it with their
own.
The Bengali Babu wore
his dhoti with a knee length shirt, a
coat, and an umbrella.
Women of Bengal were not in the habit of wearing blouses and
covered the upper part of their body with the end of their sari. The British populace did not find it appropriate and that is
how blouses and petticoats came into existence. Bengali women began wearing
blouses imitating the neckline, collars, and puffed sleeves with lace and
crochet work of Western fashion.
It is claimed that it was Jnanadanandini Debi, the wife of
Satyendranath Tagore - brother of Rabindranath Tagore - who
popularised the blouses, jackets and chemises and the modern style
of the sari today after she was
reportedly refused entry to clubs under the Raj for wearing only the sari over her bare breasts.
We are aware that the dalits,
the people of the lower castes, were not treated well by the Hindus. Though the
marginalisation was much less in Bengal with respect to South India, but it was
present. The Christians took advantage of this. Their missionaries set about
converting the Hindu Bengalis of lower caste to Christians. Christianity, the dalits felt, as a religion, did not distinguish between the rich and poor. The
converted dalits chose to attire
themselves like the Europeans to eradicate any class difference.
The work forces of the British were Indians. They were in the
military, police, railways, post and telegraph, bearers in offices and servants
at home – everywhere. It was necessary for all this work force to be dressed
properly and made presentable in the European mould. Uniforms for various
services were designed with precision and the workers were ordered to wear
these clothes and uniforms.
Slowly, over the 19th and 20th centuries, the
dhoti, pyjama and panjabi were
replaced by the more practical shirt and trouser. The sari held on a bit longer, but is now increasingly losing its ground
to the more practical salwar and kameez/ kurti; jeans and T shirts.
Today, the erstwhile attire of Bengali man and woman has been relegated
to be worn on special events – religious and social.
Reference:
(1) – History of Bengali People from earliest times to the fall
of the Sena Dynasty – Niharranjan Ray, translated by John W. Hood
(2) – The Economic Times, Mumbai, 18th August 2013;
section – Trend Spotting
(3) – South Asia: History of Dress – Jasleen Dhamija
(4) – Effect of British Raj on Indian Costume – Toolika Gupta
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