Skip to main content

BENGALI CLOTHING THROUGH AGES

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.

MAN IN KAUPINA

The Maurya dynasty, South Asia’s first major empire flourished during 324 – 184 BC and Bengal was part of the empire. Men and women wore three unstitched garments – the antariya in kachcha style, uttariya as a cover for the head or draped on the shoulder and the kayabandh (the girdle or cummerbund). The common people used cotton as the material, while the rich used silk, called cinamsuka. This was imported from China along the Silk Route.












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.

CHITON

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.

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.

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.

DWARPALA, NORTHERN GATE, SANCHI STUPA




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.

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




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

BENGALI CUISINE & CULINARY CULTURE POST SENA DYNASTY

From time immemorial, Bengal has played host to a large variety of foreign people. We have had Turks starting with the Khilji Maliks from the 12 th century. From the 15 th to the 18 th centuries the Portuguese (from 1528 to 1666), Dutch (from 1610 to 1800), French (from 1673 to 1757) and then British (from 1612 to 1947) came in and stayed on. Apart from such people who ruled a part or whole of Bengal, this part of India has also seen a variety of immigrants like the Armenians, Jews, Germans, Afghans and Chinese. Each people influenced the cuisine of Bengal in its own way giving rise to various new dishes. Thereafter, Bengalis have returned from countries of South East Asia like Burma (Myanmar), Siam (Thailand) and other South East Asian countries and have contributed to the Bengali cuisine. But, such is the tenacity of the Bengali cuisine that it has still retained its originality though more than 2000 to 2500 years have elapsed. Before we go into changes that have occurred...

BENGALI CUISINE & CULINARY CULTURE OVER AGES TILL FALL OF SENA DYNASTY

Bengalis are renowned for their culinary art. The variety of dishes that a Bengali kitchen can rustle up is unimaginable. But were the Bengalis thus before. I was studying Niharranjan Ray’s “Bangalir Itihas”, translated into English by John W. Wood, and the name of the book is “The History of Bengali People” from the earliest times till the fall of the Sena Dynasty. There is part of a chapter on eating habits of the Bengalis in that era. There are not many documents available regarding the food and drink, taste and palate and culinary arts of the Bengali people in that era. I have not taken reference to the names  of various Hindu religious and historical documents that appear in the chapter, but have attempted to write it as simply as my capability allows.  And I desire to share my findings with my friends. Rice was a staple food of all classes even in those times for the Bengali. There were different ways of cooking rice, but the most normal was to eating it pip...