Ancient Indian Costume c4: Preface
Ancient Indian Costume c4
- Language
- English
Preface
c4.1
Geographical, climatic and racial factors have had a great influence on the history of India, and consequently on the costume of its people. The very shape of India, a suspension from the continent of Asia, sealed by the Himalayas in the north and surrounded by the ocean on its other two sides, isolated it sufficiently for change to come by very slowly. The only entry into India by land was through the various passes of the north-west. Culturally, the divisions in India have been formed by the two great rivers, the Indus and the Ganges, with their tributaries in the fertile north and west. The Deccan plateau in the centre with the Western Ghats and similar ranges on its east coast, uniting at the bottom to form the Nilgiri Hills, sealed off the south of India, thereby allowing it to retain a distinct culture of its own.
c4.2
This book is a study of the costumes prevalent in four periods—Mauryan–Sunga (321–72 B.C.) Satavahana (200 B.C.–A.D. 250), Kushan (130 B.C.–A.D. 185) and the Gupta period (early fourth–mid-eighth century A.D.) The two main sources from which historical reconstruction of costumes can be made are the literary and archaeological sources. It seems safer to base most of our evidence on archaeological remains, as literary descriptions of clothes can be vague, exaggerated or confusing. Each chapter includes a brief social history of the period, its costumes, headgears and hairstyles, jewellery, and textiles and dyes. Religious and military costumes have also been given some emphasis. As the visual style of the art of each period epitomizes the costume prevailing in that period, a brief note on it has been added.
c4.3
Illustrations have been selected with a view to showing as much variety as possible of the garments worn in each period. This has been done to make a reasonable reconstruction of the clothes as they evolved and changed in ancient India. An attempt has been made in the line drawings to clarify and emphasize the functional aspect of clothes by completing a broken fragment of sculpture or a line in a painting, by eliminating the extraneous, and by disentangling from the welter of sculptural or painted forms the manner in which clothes have been attached to the human body, and the elements of which they are composed. The illustrations are accompanied by brief written descriptions using, as far as possible, the appropriate terminology. Occasionally, English terms such as robe, belt, and tunic which from the strictly academic view may appear anachronistic, have been used for purposes of simplification and clarity and to avoid the sort of pedantry which only confuses the reader.
c4.4
This work is an effort to provide substantial material for ready reference in a direct simplified form, without the encumbrances of abstruse references or technical jargon. Besides laypersons, for whom this abridged edition is primarily intended, it is hoped that illustrators, art students, fashion designers, and costume designers for film, television and theatre will get an idea of the essentials of the costume of a particular period by referring to this book.
c4.5
I wish to express my gratitude to all those scholars whose painstaking works have been a source of inspiration to me. My thanks to Shyama Chopra, Uttara Baokar, Neeta Gangopadhya and Rohini Parong for having patiently worked and re-worked on the line drawings over the many years it took to complete the original edition of this book.