History Of Indian Costume

Final Project - 2
TEXTILES & DYES

By
Sushmita Rout
 INTRODUCTION
History of clothing in the Indian subcontinent can be traced to the Indus Valley Civilization or earlier. Indians have
mainly worn clothing made up of locally grown cotton. India was one of the first places where cotton was
cultivated and used even as early as 2500 BCE during the Harappan era. The remnants of the ancient Indian
clothing can be found in the figurines discovered from the sites near the Indus Valley Civilization, the rock-
cut sculptures, the cave paintings, and human art forms found in temples and monuments. These scriptures view
the figures of human wearing clothes which can be wrapped around the body. Taking the instances of the sari to
that of turban and the dhoti, the traditional Indian wears were mostly tied around the body in various ways.

Clothing in India is dependent upon the different ethnicity, geography, climate, and cultural traditions of the people
of each region of India. Historically, male and female clothing has evolved from simple garments
like kaupina, langota, dhoti, lungi, sari, gamcha, and loincloths to cover the body into elaborate costumes not only
used in daily wear, but also on festive occasions, as well as rituals and dance performances. In urban areas, western
clothing is common and uniformly worn by people of all social levels. India also has a great diversity in terms of
weaves, fibers, colours, and material of clothing. Sometimes, color codes are followed in clothing based on the
religion and ritual concerned. The clothing in India also encompasses the wide variety of Indian embroidery, prints,
handwork, embellishment, styles of wearing clothes. A wide mix of Indian traditional clothing and western styles
can be seen in India.
Chp – 1 ANCIENT INDIAN CIVILIZATION
The earliest evidence of textile production in India comes from the Indus Valley, where a complete Urban civilization
centred around the two cities of Mahenjodaro and Harappa, thrived between 2500 and 2000 BC. Along with the
many figurines and engraved seals, numerous spindle whorls of wool and coarse cotton, some copper sewing
needles were found.

The recent discovery of excavated seals at the port town of Lothal on the west coast of Gujarat and Dhula-vira in Kutch,
indicate that the sophisticated culture, already engaging in the export trade, was in place before this time. The
earliest textile impression found in the subcontinent comes from Mehergarh, an Indus Valley site in Beluchistan.
This impression of a woven fabric and a large number of cotton seeds also unearthed, date from 5000 BC. By which
time that appears cotton cultivation and textile weaving were already advanced.

The Indus Valley was home to the largest of the four ancient urban civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and
China. Nothing was known about this civilization till 1920s when the Archaeological Department of India carried
out excavations in the Indus valley wherein the ruins of the two old cities, viz. Mohenjodaro and Harappa were
unearthed. The ruins of buildings and other things like household articles, weapons of war, gold and silver
ornaments, seals, toys, pottery wares, etc., show that some four to five thousand years ago a highly developed
Civilization flourished in this region.
1.1 Textiles and Dyes
The people of that civilization used homespun cotton for weaving their garments. Due to the nature of the
archaeological deposits in the Indus region, it is difficult to recover anything more than fragmentary and
often indirect evidence for early textile production. Another category of indirect evidence is seen in the
polychrome and bichrome designs on painted pottery, which provide some insights into the variety of fabric
designs. Fabric impressions on pottery of faience vessels are another form of evidence for the different types
of weaving and spinning. In terms of actual textiles, the most commonly preserved fragments are those that
have been saved from disintegration through contact with corroding metals such as copper or silver.
Occasionally some charred fibres have been found adhering to pottery and in very rare instances, actual
textiles are preserved under low-fired clay slips. The most common fibres used in the Indus Valley appear to
have been cotton, but various types of wool and possibly jute or hemp fibres were also used.

The Hansa or the goose motif is also an ancient symbol used in the Indian garments. It was also common in the
Indus Valley Civilization and the use of the symbol can be seen even at the Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra,
India. At the site of Harappa, during the Ravi period occupation (3300-2800 BC) (Kenoyer and Meadow
2000), many different sizes of spindle whorls have been found that suggest they may have been used for
producing different qualities of threads.
The Harappans also probably continued the earlier tradition of making clothing from leather. Dyeing
facilities indicate that cotton cloth was probably dyed a range of colours, although there is only one
surviving fragment of coloured cloth, dyed red with madder; it is likely that indigo and turmeric were also
used as dyes.
Chp – 2 Mauryan and Sunga Periods
Chandragupta Maurya established the Maurya empire by overthrowing the Nanda Dynasty and expanded
the empire with the help of Chanakya. By 316 BC , the Maurya empire fully occupied North-Western
parts of India, defeating and conquering the governors left by Alexander the Great. Chandragupta
Maurya defeated Seleucus | Nicator and gained the territories beyond Indus River.

The Shunga Empire was an ancient Indian dynasty from Magadha that controlled areas of the central and
eastern Indian Subcontinent from around 185 to 75 BCE. The dynasty was established by Pushyamitra
Shunga, after taking the throne of the Maurya Empire. Its capital was Pataliputra, but later emperors
such as Bhagabhadra also held court at Besnagar (modern Vidisha) in eastern Malwa.
Mauryan Period
Sunga Period
2.1 Textiles and Dyes
Weaving of fine and coarse varieties of cloth was well established. Cotton, silk, wool, linen and jute fabrics
were readily available. Furs and the better varieties of wool and silk like tussar, called kausheyalike Eri or
Muga silk of Assam, yellowish in Its natural color but when bleached called patrona, were used. Cotton, wool
and a fabric called karpasa were available in the north in both coarse and fine varieties. There were also
fine muslins often embroidered in purple and gold and transparent like later-day material, which
came to be called shabnam 5(morning dew). The coarse varieties were used by the populace. Woolen
cloth,avika, from the sheep’s wool was either pure white (bleached) or dyed pure red, rose, or black.

Blankets or kambala were either made by completing the edges with borders or braids, or woven wool strips were joined
together. The process of felting (pressing the fibers together, instead of weaving) was also made known. All
varieties of wool were available, coarse for making headdresses, trappings, and blankets for richer class. Washermen
were also dyers, rajaka, and they perfumed garments after washing them. Four primary color were
recognized in the dyeing of textiles: red (dyed with safflower and madder), white (through bleaching),
yellow (natural color of yarn and saffron), and blue (indigo leaves). Fabrics were also woven in patterns and
printed for use as carpets, bedcovers, blankets, and clothes
Chp – 3 Satavahana Period
The Satavahana or Andhra Empire was next great empire after the Mauryan, and was established
in the Deccan just as the Mauryan, and was coming to an end. It endured for 460 years in unbroken
continuity and ran parallel, for a while to the Kushan Empire with which it struggled for almost a
century. On the whole it was peaceful and economically prosperous period and trade and industry
increased tremendously, especially with Rome. The Romans brought in a continuous flow of
Roman gold which helped to raise the level of economic life a great deal.

From Mauryan times and even earlier, the manufacturer of textiles in India had flourished and
there are constant references to its variety in the brahmanical, Buddhist and Jain works. Wool
was not needed much in the part of India ruled by the Satavahanas, which had a warm climate,
but it is used in the form of chaddars in winter.
3.1 Textiles and Dyes
EARLY SATAVAHANA

The people of the Deccan were a hybrid race, a mixture of the abdoriginal Dravidians and foreign invaders. In the first
century B.C their costumes too were an interesting mixture of foreign and indigenous garments. All these clothes
are represented in caves IX and X in Ajanta. The tunic worn by a king in hunting dress has no discernible opening at
the neck, so it is probably at the back. Necklines too differed in that some were V-shaped and others were round in
shape. With the tunic a thick kayabandh was wound once around the waist. An elaborate turban ushnisa, intertwined
with the long black hair of the aborigine wearers was also worn. In the royal court dress of the Mauryan-Sunga
people the female attendants wore transparent long antariyas with loose kayabandhs tied in a knot at the center
having beautiful ornamental tips.

Their many stringed girdles were made of beads. Shoulder length hair held by fillets tied at the center of the head seems
to denote that these attendants were foreigners, although nothing in the garments wore seems foreign. The king and
most of his courtiers wore the indigenous antariya short and informal ceremonial occasions. With this the decorative
kayabandh was tied in different styles and knots. The kayabandh could be tied like a thick cord looped in a semi-
circle at the front with conspicuous side tassels, or be made of thick twisted silk. The ushnisa was always worn and
a crown was used when necessary.
LATE SATAVAHANA

Clothing was generally sparse and made of thin cotton. The three articles of clothing, the antariya, uttariya, and
kayabandh were widely used, but interesting mixtures of foreign and indigenous garments were fairly prevalent. The
uttariya for both men and women was usually white and of cotton or silk. It was however, at times, of beautiful colours
and embroidered. Men could wear it across the back and over both shoulders or merely thrown over the chest, and they
still worn by both sexes in the kachcha fashion which meant that one end was passed between the legs and tucked in
behind, but this way normally to the knees or even shorter. Generally, the antariya appears to have been made of almost
transparent cloth and was worn very tight and clinging in the case of women. It is almost invisible in the early Andhra
sculptures with only double incised lines to show the drape.

The women also wore the patika which was made of flat ribbonshaped pieces of cloth, usually silk. A heavy looking thick
jeweled roll with hanging tassels Kakshyabandha-was worn by men. the kalabuka was a girdle made of many strips plaited
together, and the mauraja had drum headed knots at the ends instead of tassels. It is in the distinctive ways of wearing
these three simple garments the antariya, uttariya, and kayabandh and in the headgear and jewellery, that we can trace the
evolution of the costumes and the fashion of the times in areas of India where they were in use. The true yajnopavati
thread is found on the sculptures of this period. At a later stage this sacred thread continued to be used in a limited way by
other castes but was retained most strongly by the Brahmins. Attendants, grooms, guards, and so on in the kg’s court and
attendants in the women’s apartments in the palace, frequently used a stitched shirt like foreign garment called the
kancuka. Women too wore the short kancuka with an indigenous antariya or when calf-length it was worn with kayabandh
and uttariya, and in many other ways.
Chp – 4 Kushan Period
Kushan dynasty, Kushan also spelled Kusana, ruling line descended from the Yuezhi, a people that ruled over
most of the northern Indian subcontinent, Afghanistan, and parts of Central Asia during the first three
centuries of the Common Era. The Yuezhi conquered Bactria in the 2nd century BCE and divided the country
into five chiefdoms, one of which was that of the Kushans (Guishuang). A hundred years later the Kushan
chief Kujula Kadphises (Qiu Jiuque) secured the political unification of the Yuezhi kingdom under himself.

Under Kaniska I (flourished 1st century CE) and his successors, the Kushan kingdom reached its height. It was
acknowledged as one of the four great Eurasian powers of its time (the others being China, Rome, and
Parthia). The Kushans were instrumental in spreading Buddhism in Central Asia and China and in
developing Mahayana Buddhism and the Gandhara and Mathura schools of art.

The Kushans became affluent through trade, particularly with Rome, as their large issues of gold coins show.
These coins, which exhibit the figures of Greek, Roman, Iranian, Hindu, and Buddhist deities and bear
inscriptions in adapted Greek letters, are witness to the toleration and to the syncretism in religion and art
that prevailed in the Kushan empire. After the rise of the Sāsānian dynasty in Iran and of local powers in
northern India, Kushan rule declined.
4.1 Textiles and Dyes
For the first time trade with China was directly established through the ancient silk route. Indian traders set down in Chinese
Turkestan, which was annexed by kaniska, the Kushan king. This included kashgar, and Yakhand. Buddhists missions too
were sent to china. In the northwestern is coarse cotton and wool was used for lightweight cotton, tulapansi. Both indigenous
and foreign silks were plentiful but still very expensive. Antariya were rarely decorated and when they were, they appear to
have been either embroidered, printed in diagonal check designs enclosing small circles. But a large variety of fabrics were
recovered from the burial grounds along silk route, which can be dated to between the first century BC and the second century
AD. There is in addition much literary evidence of sophistication of Indian textiles for the earliest times. In a list compiled of
fabrics recovered from the ancient silk route, fabrics in the following of were found bright blue, light blue, dark Turban cloth
for rich women were often diagonal with every third line made of pearls.

This bejeweled material was also used to cover beds and seats many geometric patterns of check, strips and triangles were also
printed and woven. It is only from literary somewhat we know of the textiles and dyes available in the earlier period. Hence, it
is possible to maintain that many of the patterns and colours would be similar. We know for the beautiful ultra-marine and
lapis lazuli blue were sent along the trade route from the famous mines at Badakshan in Central Asia. In a list compiled of
fabrics recovered from the ancient silk route, fabrics in the following of were found bright blue, light blue, dark blue cooper
etc. these are all variants and mixtures of the colours in dyes that were available in India in this period blue cooper etc. These
are all variants and mixtures of the colours in dyes that were available in India in this period.
In a list compiled of fabrics recovered from the ancient silk route, fabrics in the following of
were found bright blue, light blue, dark blue cooper etc. these are all variants and mixtures of
the colours in dyes that were available in India in this period blue cooper etc. these are all
variants and mixtures of the colours in dyes that were available in India in this period.
Chp – 5 Gupta Period
The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire existing from the mid-to-late 3rd century CE to 543 CE. At its
zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period is
considered as the Golden Age of India by some historians. The ruling dynasty of the empire was founded by
the king Sri Gupta; the most notable rulers of the dynasty were Chandragupta I, Samudragupta,
and Chandragupta II alias Vikramaditya. Many of the literary sources, such as Mahabharata and Ramayana,
were canonised during this period. The Gupta period produced scholars such as Kalidasa, Aryabhata,
Varahamihira, and Vatsyayana who made great advancements in many academic field. Science and political
administration reached new heights during the Gupta era.

The high points of this period are the great cultural developments which took place primarily during the reigns
of Samudragupta, Chandragupta II and Kumaragupta I. Many of the literary sources, such
as Mahabharata and Ramayana, were canonised during this period. The Gupta period produced scholars
such as Kalidasa,Aryabhata, Varahamihira, and Vatsyayana who made great advancements in many
academic field. The period gave rise to achievements in architecture, sculpture, and painting that "set
standards of form and taste [that] determined the whole subsequent course of art, not only in India but far
beyond her borders".
The Puranas, earlier long poems on a variety of subjects, are also thought to have been committed to
written texts around this period. Brahmins flourished in the Gupta empire but the Guptas tolerated people
of other faiths as well. Vedic sacrifices reduced in the Gupta period. The empire eventually died out
because of many factors such as substantial loss of territory and imperial authority caused by their own
erstwhile feudatories, as well as the invasion by the Huna peoples (Kidarites and Alchon Huns)
from Central Asia. After the collapse of the Gupta Empire in the 6th century, India was again ruled by
numerous regional kingdoms.
5.1 Textiles and Dyes
In the Gupta age, the finest textiles were available, printed, painted, dyed and richly patterned.

Woven

• Gold and silver woven brocades reached a high peak of development. Silk and cotton were woven in patterns
and stripes, including for special bed covers known as nicola and pracchadapata, and rugs known as rallaka
and kambala.

• The lady on the right is wearing an outfit made up of a tie-and-dye patterned long sleeved blouse, and an Ikat
weave gagra as the lower garment.

• Tie and Dye was very sophisticated and beautiful effects were created by the resist-dyte techniques. These were
called pulakabandha at that time. Here below is a selection of checked woven garments from Ajanta wall
paintings.

• Block printing was done on a wide scale. Here on the left is a fabric showing block printed ducks. It has been
taken from a garment worn by a Gupta courtier on the Ajanta Cave wall paintings.
• Embroidered fabrics were widely popular and skillfully executed. Gauze from Dacca was obtained,
which was noted for it's transparency and was said to be so fine that only it's delicate gold embroidered
edging could be seen.

• In addition to those fabrics made in India, special costly silken fabrics known as stavaraka made in
Persia, were imported by the Gupta nobles and businessmen. This cloth was studded with pearls and was
mostly worn only by royalty because it was so costly.
Chp – 6 Medieval & Mughal Period
Medieval Period

Medieval India refers to a long period of the history of the Indian subcontinent between the "ancient period" and
"modern period". It encompasses the 6th to the 16th centuries. In the history of Europe, the Middle
Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the late 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman
Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the
three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The
medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages.

Mughal Period

The Mughal Empire, Mogul or Moghul Empire, was an early-modern empire in South Asia. For some two centuries,
the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest,
and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of present-day Assam and Bangladesh in the east, and the uplands of
the Deccan plateau in south India. The Mughal empire is conventionally said to have been founded in 1526
by Babur, a warrior chieftain from what today is Uzbekistan, who employed aid from the
neighboring Safavid and Ottoman empires, to defeat the Sultan of Delhi, Ibrahim Lodhi, in the First Battle of
Panipat, and to sweep down the plains of Upper India.
The Mughal imperial structure, however, is sometimes dated to 1600, to the rule of Babur's
grandson, Akbar. There were many Muslim and Hindu kingdoms split all throughout India until the
founders of the Mughal Empire came. There were some men such as Babar, grandson to the Great Asian
conqueror Tamerlane and the conqueror Genghis Khan from the northern region of Ganges, river valley,
who decided to take over Khyber, and eventually, all of India.
Medieval Dynasty Mughal Dynasty
Medieval Period
Mughal Period
6.1 Textiles and Dyes
Writing in the fifth century BC, the Greek historian, Herodotus, marveled at the equality of Indian cotton: ‘There are
trees which grow wild, the fruit of which is a wool exceeding in beauty and goodness, that of sheep. The Indians
make their clothes of this tree wool. In 330BC, Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to the court of Chandragupta
Maurya, enthused about the patterned robes and dresses made from the finest flowered muslin worn at court and
by the wealthy. The Mauryan administration had improved transportation and the Indo-Greek kings; the Shakas,
Kushan and Parthians had established strong links with Western and Central Asia, China and the Mediterranean
world. Mercantile activity increased throughout the Southern kingdoms where large-scale Marin tine trade and
commerce was conducted by the Eastern ands Western coasts of India with Arabia, South-East Asia and Japan.

Fabrics were woven from a variety of yarns: cotton was cultivated in most parts of the subcontinent; silk came mostly
from the Eastern Himalayas; and wool came from the Northern Himalayas. Most of these textiles were luxury
commodities, which began their evolution during the medieval period. Tie dyed fabrics had a long tradition of
usage in the courts and were widely exported. They came in a variety of designs such as bandhani, lahariya and
mothra. These techniques were used for texturing and patterning both silk and cotton fabrics. Western India,
which was produced using a complex technique in which tie-dyed silk and cotton yarns were woven with
geometric precision to produce intricately patterned fabrics of supreme quality and originality. This technique was
already well advanced in ancient times.
Patolas and other Ikats were also custom made for the inhabitants of South East Asia, who believed that
these Indian cloths had magical qualities and used them in religious rituals and ceremonial rites of passage.
The right to wear ikat was widely claimed as a prerogative of the nobility on these islands and wealthy
families kept them as heirlooms. The value of ikat in the Spice Islands was in fact so high that local traders
would refuse gold for their precious spices and only exchange them for Indian fabrics.
Medieval and Mughal Period
Textiles
Medieval and Mughal Period
Dyes
 Conclusion
• Here it is clear that culture influences a lot on the clothing of the person. Clothing is a tool by
which a person expresses his individuality of culture and his social status in the society. It
helps to make him believe that he "belongs" to a certain group gives him a demarcation from
the other culture.

• The dressing scene in the particular culture gives a sense of superiority or inferiority and acts
as a medium of self expression.
Thank You!