Sari

What is Sari?

A sari is a length of cloth, unstitched and unshaped, that a woman wraps on as a dress. Between roughly four and a half and nine yards long and two to four feet wide, it is fastened at the waist and carried up over one shoulder like a stole, leaving the midriff bare if the wearer wishes. Underneath sit two separate pieces, a close-fitting blouse called the choli and an inner skirt. The garment belongs to India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan, where it serves as everyday dress for many women and formal dress for others. Silk, cotton and man-made fibres are all used. It remains current across the region.

Where does Sari come from?

Drapery of this kind goes back to the northwestern part of the subcontinent between 2800 and 1800 BCE, when cotton was already grown and woven and dyes such as indigo, red madder, turmeric and lac were in use. Silk weaving followed by around 2450 to 2000 BCE. The name comes from śāṭikā, a Sanskrit term for women's clothing, and the modern garment grew out of a three-part set: a lower wrap, the antarīya; a shoulder or head veil, the uttarīya; and a chest band, the stanapaṭṭa, all found in Sanskrit and Pali writing by the 6th century BCE. The chest band later became the choli. Kalhana's Rajatarangini, a tenth-century work, records a Deccan choli brought to Kashmir on royal orders.

How is Sari made?

Saris are woven, printed, dyed or embroidered, and the method differs from region to region. Handloom weaving in silk and cotton gives the brocades, among them Banarasi, Kanchipuram, Paithani, Gadwal, Mysore and Chanderi, and the ikat and cotton types such as Patola, Pochampally, Sambalpuri, Jamdani and Ilkal. Resist dyeing and printing give Bandhani, Leheriya, Ajrakh, Bagru, Sungudi, Bagh and Kalamkari, which were traditionally worn in the monsoon. Embroidery has its own traditions, including gota patti, phulkari, mochi, pakko, kharak, suf, kathi and gamthi, with kasuti used on southern blouses. Polyester, georgette and charmeuse are also common now, so a sari may be handwoven or mill-made.

Colours, motifs and borders

Colour carries meaning, and wedding saris are traditionally red. The dyes kept from early times are indigo, red madder, lac and turmeric. Beyond that there is no single sari pattern. Brocade silk, ikat, block print, tie-dye and embroidery each give a different surface, and regional types carry their own names, among them Banarasi, Kanchipuram, Paithani, Maheshwari, Chanderi, Jamdani, Bandhani, Leheriya and Kalamkari. Some are kept for festivals and formal days, others for rain.

How Sari is worn

A sari is draped, never stitched. One end is tucked at the waist, the pleats fall in front, and the loose end, the pallu or aanchal, crosses a shoulder. The Nivi drape, which began in the Deccan, is the best known; in its nauvari or kasta form the pleats pass between the legs and are tucked behind, so the legs stay covered and the wearer can move freely. Some regional drapes bring the pallu to the front, and others leave a longer end that can also cover the head. Beneath the sari go a fitted blouse and an inner skirt, known as sāyā in Hindi, parkar in Marathi and ul pavadai in Tamil.

When Sari is worn

For most wearers the sari is ordinary dress, and also the right thing for a wedding, a festival or a formal occasion. Brides in Hindu weddings traditionally wear one, usually red. Brocade silks such as Banarasi, Kanchipuram, Paithani and Mysore are kept for festive and formal days, while ikat, cotton and printed saris serve both festival and everyday use. Tie-dyed and block-printed cloth was worn in the monsoon. Among Rajbanshi women the sari was once tied below the neck without a blouse, a style now kept mainly by older women.

Styles of Sari

Draping varies enormously. More than eighty ways are recorded; the sari historian Rta Kapur Chishti lists 108 in her book Saris: Tradition and Beyond, drawn from fourteen states. Chantal Boulanger grouped drapes into families, among them the Nivi, the front-pallu styles of Gujarat and Rajasthan, the single box pleat of Bengal and Odisha, and Himalayan woollen saris such as Kulluvi Pattu. In Nepal the Newari drape ties the pallu at the waist instead of across the chest. Today handloom cloth and mill-made fabric sit side by side.

What Sari means

The sari marks identity as much as it clothes the body. The word śāṭika appears in Sanskrit and Buddhist literature as women's dharmic dress, and Dharmasastra writers held that a woman's navel should never be seen, which shaped ideas about covering the midriff in some times and places. The loose end pulled over the head as a ghoonghat still persists among married women in Hindi-speaking areas. The Sari Series, a non-profit project begun in 2017, records regional drapes on film. The sari also remains formal dress across the region.

Questions people ask about Sari

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle
• Wendell Rodricks showcases colours of GoaHindustan Times, Article
• Jamdani Sari gets GI registration certificateThe Daily Star, Article

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