The History and Evolution of Sarees.

"A Silk weaver can only weave silk, he cannot wear it."

The history and evolution of saree has been assimilated with ethos of Indian civilization. 

Sari, in Sanskrit, translates as “strip of cloth”, and it usually measures six to eight metres in length. The garment is believed to have originated in the Indus Valley as early as 2800 BC, and today represents the national dress of India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. 

The sari evolved from a three-piece ensemble comprising the Antriya, the lower garment; the Uttariya; a veil worn over the shoulder or the head; and the Stanapatta, a chestband. This ensemble is mentioned in Sanskrit literature and Buddhist Pali literature during the 6th century B.C.  This complete three-piece dress was known as Poshak, a generic term for a costume.

The earliest documented evidence of the saree comes from the Maurya and Sunga periods around 300 BC. The earliest representations from the time often depict men and women wearing a draped rectangular cloth over their lower body and nothing covering their upper body. Sculptures and paintings from the Gupta period in the 7th and 8th century showed a stitched garment like breast band for women accompanying the lower draped garment. It is believed by historians that usually it was the women of the higher classes who wore two garments while women of the lower classes were bare-breasted.

Cotton and Silk are two oldest and natural man-made fabric that were used weave sarees. Cotton was first cultivated and woven in Indian subcontinent around 5th millennium BC. Dyes used during this period are still in use, particularly indigo, lac, red madder, and turmeric. Silk was woven around 2450 BC and 2000 BC.

The British found the saree worn by women immodest. They introduced the ‘blouse’ and ‘petticoat’ that are worn under the Indian saree. India’s history has several, notable mentions of clothing as a means to determine caste. The Mahad Satyagraha of March 1927, which was pioneered by Dr B.R. Ambedkar was a revolution led by Dalits to assert their right to access drinking water from public places. During this time, Ambedkar urged Dalit women to abandon clothing that marked their status as lower caste women in society, asking them to drape saris like upper-caste women.

The saree form we see today was only developed in the post-Mughal era when the saree was established as a standard Indian garment for Hindu women.

Sarees are perhaps the only kind of Indian clothing that cuts across cultures and communities. Apart from being a timeless garment that only gets better with each passing generation, it occupies a special place in the regional traditions of India where different communities have their own take on it.

There is nothing more quintessentially Indian than a saree. The image of a woman draped in a saree is instantly relatable as something to do with India. 

Yes, it’s the traditional garment of choice for Indian women everywhere but the saree is so much more than a national costume. Much like the country itself, the saree has persevered, toiled, transformed and continues to evolve, encompassing the changing world around it but also remaining consistently true to it innate qualities.

The story of the evolution of the saree runs parallel to the history of India in a way that is rarely witnessed and even less documented because it has been so in-sync with the changing tides that people have often failed to recognise it. However a little bit of investigative research on fashion through the ages reveals that the saree is not merely yards of fabric or simply a garment worn by Indian women, it is a relic to India’s past, present and future.

"A saree is not just a garment. It’s a power, an identity, a language."

GaviRangappa S P.

Devanga's Vidhana.

Jai Devanga.