The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.8.1

v1.c10.8.1

**Importance of dress :** The first step in the march from barbarism to civilization is indicated by the dress of a nation. Climatic and other causes, no doubt, influence the nature of dress; but no race can be said to have emerged from the grossest barbarism, or the most primitive simplicity, which has not risen to something more substantial, ample and artifical than the wardrobe of mother Eve. The skins of animals have supplied the place of cloth to wild races at all times; but it is only after those nations learn to convert them into leather that they can be said to have reached the outskirts of a civilized life. The Hindus seem to have made considerable progress in this respect at a very early period in their history. The *Samhitā* of the *Ṛgveda*, which dates with the Mosaic chronicles, contain many passages which show that even then they were perfectly familiar with the art of weaving not only for the necessaries, but also for the luxuries, of life. The passages, it must be confessed, are brief and casual, occurring mostly by way of similes and comparisons in hymns designed for the glorification of particular divinities; but they are not the less interesting and suggestive on that account. Thus the verse which describes night as "enwrapping the extended world like a woman weaving a garment"⁴, gives only a simile, yet that simile refers to a familiar fact whose existence cannot be questioned.