Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c11.s3.12

c11.s3.12

While the male costume followed more or less the ancient modes as depicted in the paintings of Ajaṇṭā, the female costume underwent radical changes. The *sārī* typical of modern Gujarāt was unknown. The women in the paintings of the *Vasanta Vilāsa* wear a long, gaily coloured scarf coming down from the shoulders and hanging loose below the knees. The lower part of their bodies are invariably covered with a *dhotī*, much in the same way as is done in the present days in Bengal and the United Provinces. The skirt seems to have been unknown. The women also wore a bodice (*cholī*) covering the bust almost down to the waist, a little above the navel (Fig. 253). Women of lower classes went about bareheaded, and the *mukuṭa* seems to have been a monopoly of the female aristocracy.⁶⁹