Mundum neriyathum

What is Mundum neriyathum?

The mundum neriyathum is the traditional dress of women in Kerala, in southwestern India. It comes in two pieces. The mundu is the lower cloth, worn below the navel and around the hips, like the mundu men in Kerala wear. The neriyatu is the upper cloth, carried across the body and left hanging from the left shoulder. Both are usually white or cream cotton with a coloured strip at the edge called the kara. The cloth is starched before it is draped, and it sits over a blouse whose colour matches the border. It is the oldest surviving form of the sari, which once covered only the lower body.

Where does Mundum neriyathum come from?

The mundum neriyathum is treated as the surviving form of an ancient sari called the sattika, named in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain texts. Its lower piece is linked to the antariya, its upper piece to the uttariya, a thin scarf carried from the right shoulder to the left in old Buddhist and Jain writings. The two sets of cloth grew into what is now called the Kerala sari. It was the dress of Nayar women, and among Travancore Nayars it was the mantra koti, divine clothing given by the groom to the bride at the wedding. Medieval Kerala murals show three ways of dressing: a one-piece mundu, a single-piece sari with overlapping pleats like the nivi drape, and this two-piece set.

How is Mundum neriyathum made?

The mundum neriyathum is made of cotton and is always woven by hand. The cloth is plain white or cream, and what decoration there is sits at the edges: a kara, or border strip, in a contrasting colour, worked as a simple line. On festive pieces that border widens into a golden band called kasavu. The gold may be a pure layer, copper coated or artificial. Small peacock or temple designs are sometimes added at the pallu. The set is starched before it is worn so the cloth holds its shape.

Colours, motifs and borders

Everyday cloth is white or cream, and the colour comes from the border. That strip, the kara, is usually a plain line or a simple design along the bottom edge. Kasavu borders for festive wear are gold and broad. Peacock and temple motifs appear on the pallu of some pieces, described as occasional rather than standard. When the cloth is worn for an occasion the blouse colour follows the wearer: young unmarried women wear green, married mothers red.

How Mundum neriyathum is worn

The mundu goes around the hips, below the navel. One end of the neriyatu is tucked into the pavada, or petticoat, and the rest is carried across the front of the body, then diagonally from the right hip up to the left shoulder, leaving part of the midriff bare. The loose end falls from the left shoulder in a way that looks like the nivi sari. There are two ways of doing this: the older style keeps the neriyatu inside the blouse, the modern style puts it over the left shoulder.

When Mundum neriyathum is worn

It is worn as everyday dress and as festive dress. At Onam, women of all ages put on the mundum neriyathum and join the women's folk dance called kaikottikalli. For such days the border turns gold, and the blouse colour follows age and marital status. At weddings among Travancore Nayars the cloth was the mantra koti, divine clothing, given by the groom to the bride. The plain version is ordinary wear; the kasavu version is the one that marks an occasion.

Styles of Mundum neriyathum

The Kerala sari is a single piece of cloth that closely resembles the two-piece set, and Malayali women often wear it as a quasi mundum neriyathum. A veshti is another related form: a small upper garment like a blouse, worn without a pallu, over a mundu. The cloth is known by several names, among them set mundu, set-sari and set veshti. The loose end of the drape is also compared to the nivi sari, and both the traditional and the modern style appear in the paintings of Raja Ravi Varma.

What Mundum neriyathum means

The mundum neriyathum is the cultural dress of Malayali women, and the contrast of a gold border against plain white cloth has come to stand for them. Raja Ravi Varma painted both ways of wearing it; in some of his Shakuntala paintings he turned it into the drape now called the nivi sari or national drape, and one painting showed the subcontinent itself as a mother in a flowing nivi sari. The cloth also carries a wedding meaning, as the divine garment the groom gave the bride.

Days Mundum neriyathum is worn for

Questions people ask about Mundum neriyathum

Good reading and sources

• Mundum neriyatum on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data