India sarees: weaves, drapes and weaving centres

The sari is an unstitched length of woven cloth draped over the body, worn across India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan. Its history runs back to ancient drapery in the northwest of the subcontinent, and it shares roots with earlier pieces like the stanapatta, uttariya and antariya.

A sari measures 4.5 to 9 yards long and 24 to 47 inches wide.
Over 80 drapes are recorded; historian Rta Kapur Chishti found 108 across 14 states.
Cotton was cultivated and woven in the subcontinent around the 5th millennium BCE.
Indigo, lac, red madder and turmeric were ancient dyes, still in use today.
Red is the most favoured colour for a Hindu wedding sari.

Sarees in India

The sari is a single piece of unstitched cloth. It can run from about four and a half to nine yards long and roughly two to four feet wide. One end is tucked at the waist and the other rests on a shoulder like a stole, often leaving the midriff bare. The word comes from shatika, a Sanskrit term for a strip of cloth. Older texts describe a set of three pieces: a chest band, a shoulder veil and a wrap for the lower body. These grew into the modern choli, dupatta and skirt. The garment is everyday and formal wear across the region, and it sits beside related draped cloth in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Weaves and fabrics

Cotton was grown and woven in the subcontinent from around the fifth millennium BCE, and silk from about 2450 to 2000 BCE. Handloom saris are made in silk and cotton. Named traditions include brocade silks such as Banarasi, Kanchipuram, Gadwal, Paithani, Mysore, Chanderi and Maheshwari, and lighter cloths like jamdani, tant, Mangalagiri, Ilkal and tussar. Ikat and tie-dye appear too. Polyester, georgette and charmeuse are now common as well.

How it is worn

More than eighty drapes have been recorded, and one scholar, Rta Kapur Chishti, documented a hundred and eight across fourteen states. The nivi style is the most seen today: cloth wrapped at the waist, pleats in front, the loose end, or pallu, over one shoulder. Related family styles include kaccha or nauvari, where pleats pass between the legs, and sidha pallu, worn by women in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan, with the end brought forward. Bengali wear folds in a single box pleat. In Nepal, a Newari drape ties the pallu at the waist.

Dyeing, printing and embroidery

Dyeing is old here. Indigo, lac, red madder and turmeric were used in ancient times and are still worked with. Tie-dye and block-print saris include bandhani, leheria, bagru, ajrakh, sungudi, dabu, bagh and kalamkari. Embroidery covers gota patti for formal wear, plus mochi, pakko, kharak, suf, kathi, phulkari and gamthi. In the south the choli is called ravike and ties at the front; kasuti embroidery decorates it.

Weaving centres

Many saris are known by the place or style they come from. Silk brocades include Banarasi, Kanchipuram, Gadwal, Paithani, Mysore, Uppada, Chanderi, Maheshwari and Narayanpet. Ikat and cotton saris include Patola, Pochampally, Bomkai, Khandua, Sambalpuri, Berhampuri, Bargarh, Jamdani, Tant, Mangalagiri, Guntur, Tussar, Ilkal, Kotpad and Manipuri. Kerala keeps a two-piece mundum neryathum. Kashmir took the choli from the Deccan by royal order.

Weddings, festivals and daily wear

Red is the favourite colour for a wedding sari, and it is the traditional bridal choice at Hindu weddings. Handloom silks, brocades, tie-dye and block prints serve festive and formal days. Ikat and cotton saris are worn for both festival and everyday use, while tie-dyed and printed cloth was favoured in the monsoon. A married woman may draw the loose end over her head as a ghoonghat, still seen in Hindi-speaking areas.

The saree today

The sari stays fashionable in the subcontinent and counts as formal dress in several countries of the region. Newer fabrics such as polyester, georgette and charmeuse are widely used. Since 2017 a non-profit project, the Sari Series, has gathered short films showing more than eighty regional drapes, keeping that variety visible.

Where this page comes from

The facts in this overview come from the Wikipedia article "Sari", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. EveryPallu rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.

🇮🇳 The sarees of India