History of Bengali Language and Literature c8.21

c8.21

“One the Rājā wore round the loins tucking the ends tightly between the legs. Of the other he made a turban, and with the third he covered his body.”—In Mānik Chandra Rajār Gān we found Nengā brother of Rājā Mānik Chandra asking him to take his turban off as his mother was dead. The ladies of Bengal used to wear a bodice called Kanchuli like the up-country women of today. We meet with description of the Kanchuli in almost all our writers from Vijay Gupta downward. The custom lingered even up to the time of Rājā Kriṣṇa Chandra of Nadīā in the eighteenth century. We quote from the Bengali work called Kṣitīça Vamçāvalī Charita† “The queen (of Kriṣṇa Chandra) and the ladies of the royal family used to wear silk Çāḍis but during festivities and on important religious occasions they put on the Kanchuli (bodice), Ghāgrā (a sort of gown worn by up-country women), and Oḍṇā as the ladies of the North-western countries do.” A description of this Oḍṇā is to be found in many of the old Bengali poems; for instance in a pada by Vamçivadana we have the following‡