I saw this thread in All Views where they were discussing how Saree was a part of Hinduism. That set me thinking about the different attires we see all over the subcontinent , their origin and how they evolved over time. Please contribute some historical info regarding the various types of clothing of your respective regions.
I will start with the Saree.
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Saree**: The word is derived from the sanskrit word Saati which means “strip of cloth”.
The word ‘Sattika’ is mentioned as describing women’s attire in ancient India in Buddhist Jain literature called Jatakas This could be equivalent to modern day ‘Sari’. In the history of Indian clothing the sari is traced back to the which flourished during 2800–1800 BC around the western part of the Indian Suncontinent[SUP][/SUP] The earliest known depiction of the sari in the Indian subcontinent is the statue of an Indus Valley priest wearing a drape.[SUP][/SUP]
Ancient Tamil poetry, such as the Silappadhikaram and the Sanskrit work, Kadambari by Banabhatta, describes women in exquisite drapery or sari.[SUP][/SUP] The ancient stone inscription from Gangaikonda Cholapuram in old Tamil scripts has a reference to hand weaving.[SUP][/SUP] In ancient Indian tradition and the Natya Shastra (an ancient Indian treatise describing ancient dance and costumes), the navel of the Supreme Being is considered to be the source of life and creativity, hence the midriff is to be left bare by the sari.
