Chattayum mundum

What is Chattayum mundum?

The chattayum mundum is a plain two-piece cotton dress worn by Syrian Christian women in Kerala, also called Saint Thomas Christians. The chatta is the upper piece: a white cloth cut like a jacket or blouse, with sleeves, sewn hems and a neckline shaped as a half-circle at the back that runs into a V in front. The mundu is a long white cloth tied at the waist, falling to the ankles. A kavani, or half-sari, may be added over the shoulders. Nothing much decorates it in its everyday form.

Where does Chattayum mundum come from?

Where the chatta came from is not settled. Some writers point to West Asia: one proposal is that it developed from the outer garments of traders who came from there, since women in Jewish and Mappila Muslim households in Malabar wore a similar top, while Hindu women did not. The mundu is usually treated as South Indian in origin, and the njori resembles dress worn by Brahmin women in South India. The white colour is thought to echo the white clothing long linked with upper-caste Hindu households in Kerala. From the 1970s upkeep became a burden, and many women turned to saris, and later to churidars; today mainly older women wear the dress.

How is Chattayum mundum made?

Cotton is the fibre. The mundu is a plain white length of about seven yards by one and a quarter yards, tied at the waist, with one end folded into the pleats that make the fan-shaped njori at the back. The cloth for kachamuris came as one large roll of white material, enough for several of them, and the leftovers went into chattas and mundus. The chatta is sewn rather than wrapped, with finished edges at the neck, sleeves and hem.

Colours, motifs and borders

Most chattayum mundums carry no pattern at all; the effect comes from whiteness and clean finishing. Decoration sits mainly on the kavani, embroidered in white or soft cream, and on the off-white kavanis with worked edges once made at Balaramapuram. In church an extra cloth with a golden border, the kasavu, goes over the head. Bridal kachamuris were edged in gold jerry and trimmed with gold.

How Chattayum mundum is worn

The chatta has no opening at the front or the back, so it goes on over the head, with a half-circle at the back running into a V in front. The mundu wraps the waist and reaches the ankles, its njori pleats fanning out behind. A kavani sits over the shoulders and chest, pleated in the centre and pinned to the left shoulder with a brooch, often of gold or gold-finished metal. In church, older women draw the kasavu over head and shoulders. Schoolgirls went without the kavani and carried a small handwoven towel instead.

When Chattayum mundum is worn

The plainer set served for going out and for formal wear. The kachamuri, the ceremonial mundu, was kept for festivals and special days. Brides wore kachamuris bordered in gold jerry, with ornamented upper garments, gold jewellery and specially made footwear; a groom once gave his mother-in-law a new kachamuri after the wedding, a custom now mostly replaced by presenting a sari. Girls could begin wearing the dress at about twelve. Today it is seen mainly on older women at church and in the Margamkali dance.

Styles of Chattayum mundum

Three forms sit side by side: the plain everyday chatta and mundu, the richer kachamuri for ceremony, and the kavani or half-sari laid over them. Margamkali dancers wear a slightly shorter version, and in the 1950s a kunukku was worn with the set as a fashionable touch. As women moved to saris in the 1970s, and later to churidars coming from the north, the dress fell out of daily use.

Care and buying

Looking after the dress took real work. Women starched the cloth and whitened it so the white stayed crisp, and that upkeep was heavy. It was one of the reasons Syrian Christian women moved to the sari from the 1970s, and later to churidars.

What Chattayum mundum means

The dress marks a community: Kerala's Syrian Christians, who trace their church to Saint Thomas. Its whiteness carries the older association of white clothing with status in Kerala, and the question over the chatta's West Asian roots keeps the community's trading past in view. Margamkali, a Syrian Christian dance, is performed in a shorter form of the set. A character in Arundhati Roy's Booker Prize novel The God of Small Things is described wearing the chattayum mundum at a time when Syrian Christian women were turning to saris.

Questions people ask about Chattayum mundum

Good reading and sources

• Ciao to the chatta?The Hindu, Article

• Chattayum mundum on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data