تحفة النظار في غرايب الامصار وعجايب الاسفار 13.84.2

13.84.2

When I held the office of qāḍī there, I strove to put an end to that custom and to order them to wear clothes, but I could not; so no woman was admitted to me in a lawsuit unless her body was covered, but beyond that I had no power. Some of them wear shirts in addition to the waist-cloth, and their shirts have short, wide sleeves. I had slave girls whom I dressed in the clothing of the people of Dihlī, and they covered their heads, but this disfigured them more than it adorned them, since they were not used to it! Their ornaments are bracelets: a woman puts a number of them on her arms, so that they fill the space between wrist and elbow; they are of silver, and none but the women of the sultan and his relatives wear gold bracelets. They have anklets, which they call bāyil, with b, ā and i on the y, and gold necklaces which they put on their breasts and call basdarad, with b, s without a vowel, a on the d, and r.