Parsi wear

The gara

The gara is an embroidered silk saree, with a base cloth and densely worked motifs of birds, flowers, pagodas and figures. It is associated with Parsi women, who took up the style as the community traded with China from the nineteenth century, and the embroidery was first done in Canton and later in India and Surat. The saree is handmade and slow to complete, and a fine one can take a long time to embroider. Parsi women wear garas for weddings, the navjote and other family occasions, and they are often passed on as heirlooms from one generation to the next.

The navjote and the white saree

The navjote is the initiation ceremony in which a Parsi child is invested with the sudreh and kusti, the sacred shirt and cord. Girls and women wear white for the ceremony, often a white saree or a white dress with a white head covering. The mother and women of the family wear their own saree, often silk or a gara. White is the colour of purity in the Zoroastrian tradition and is also worn for prayer and at the fire temple. A woman wearing a saree may cover her head with a mathabana, a white headcloth tied at the back.

The Parsi drape

The Parsi style of wearing the saree is distinctive. The pleats are tucked at the waist in the usual way, but the cloth is then taken across the back and brought over the right shoulder, so that the pallu hangs in front, over the chest or arm. It is sometimes called the seedha pallu, though this is also the name of a Gujarati style, and many Parsi women say it is simply how they wear it. The style is associated with Parsi women in Gujarat and Mumbai, and has been worn since the community arrived in India.

Weddings and customs

At a Parsi wedding, the bride often wears a white or pastel gara or a silk saree, and the groom wears a white dagli and a white cap. The ceremony takes place before the fire priests, and women in the family wear their best sarees. For worship in the agiary, or fire temple, women cover their heads and dress modestly, and many wear white. Visitors should ask the community about dress, since many fire temples are open only to Zoroastrians. If you are invited to a Parsi celebration, a pastel or bright silk is a gracious choice.

Worth knowing

• Gara saree: The embroidered Parsi silk saree with Chinese-influenced motifs.
• Navjote: The initiation ceremony of a Parsi child.
• Mathabana: The white head cloth worn at prayer.
• Sudreh and kusti: The sacred shirt and cord of the Zoroastrian faith.
• Agiary: The Parsi fire temple, where women cover their heads.

Good to know

• Store a gara flat or rolled in muslin, never hung, so the embroidery does not pull.
• Dry clean only, and air it in shade before folding.
• Keep white cloth for the navjote apart from coloured pieces.

Sources and further reading

• Navjote, Wikipedia