The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s6.94

c2.s6.94

note of this point, not having considered it of sufficient interest. I may mention, however, that in general there is distinction between the dress of maid, wife, and widow. The last wears no ornaments. The chief article of the married woman’s dress is a necklace, this being indicative of wifehood. Other ornaments are worn in profusion by girls and married women. The rustic maidens seem to wear as little dress as possible, but queens and women of wealth are gaudily attired in linen or red and yellow silk (the men of the same class wearing red and blue silk). Thus Sītā and Draupadī are described: with the addition, that the hair is worn in a long braid, long enough to conceal a dagger in, according to the tragedy related in the Brhat Saṃhitā. The deshabille of a royal dame seems to be a linen cloth wound about the body; thus Krishnā, when dragged into the assembly, wears only such a cloth.*