History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c9.1

v1.c9.1

Having described the people we will now pass on to describe their social condition that is, their dress and ornaments, their customs and their manners. In these respects too, the days of Harsha stand as a dividing line between ancient and modern India, constituting as it were the last ring in the chain of ancient times. The dress of the people in India, is thus described by Hiuen Tsang. "The inner clothing and the outward attire of the people *have no tailoring*. As to colour, a fresh white is esteemed and motley is of no account. The men wind a strip of cloth round the waist and up to the armpits and leave the right shoulder bare. The women wear a long robe which covers both shonlders and falls down loose. The hair on the crown of the head is made into a coil, all the rest of the hair hanging down. Some clip their mustachios or have other fantastic fashions. Garlands are worn on the head and necklaces on the body." (Watters Vol. I. p. 150) This shows first, that up to the days of Harsha tailoring had not yet been introduced into India. The clothing both of men and women consisted as of old of one piece of cloth wound about the loins, and taken up above one shoulder in the case of men and above both in that of women. The Uttarīya or the second or upper piece of cloth was used by both men and women sometimes but not necessarily as Hiuen Tsang does not mention it. This dress is noticed not only in the Manusmriti, but also by Greek writers. In fact, the Greeks themselves and even the Romans used only two long robes, similarly worn over the shoulders and falling fellow in folds. At the present day the one cloth dress of women has still remained in vogue in Bengal, in Madras and partially in Bomday i. e. in the east, the west and the south but has been substituted by a sewn petticoat in the north, though even there the women in their houses use often the one cloth covering. For men, the Dhoti or the lower cloth has still remained the usual clothing used in public. Except in the south and west sewn clothes have now become the fashion; and for the upper clothing or uttariya sewn clothes have everywhere been substituted. The institution of tailoring was probably introduced after Harsha's time by the Arabs in the eighth century and perhaps even later by the Turks in the eleventh.