The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation, from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day c15.s1.1

c15.s1.1

The Vedic literature supplies us with very little information about the dress of the women of the age. The vocabulary itself of the period has got no separate words to denote women's clothes. The same words are used to denote the different clothes worn both by men and women. An under-garment (*vāsaḥ antaram*) and an upper garment (*paridhānam*) were in general use among the members of both the sexes. A waistband was used round the lower garment (*Ś. Br.*, 1, 3, 3, 6). Probably both the garments were usually coloured in the case of women, for the Vedic literature refers to the dyer (*V. S.*, 30, 12). In addition to the two garments, mentioned above, kings used to wear a gorgeous mantle (*drāpi*) on ceremonious occasions. Queens also probably had the counterpart of this mantle in the form of an embroidered shawl, though there is no definite evidence on the point. In one place goddess Indrāṇī is described as wearing a headdress (*ushṇīsha*, *Ś. Br.*, XIV, 2, 1, 8); it is probable that the well-to-do ladies of the Vedic age were also doing the same.