South Indian Inscriptions

SOCIETY

Sītā in the panel called ‘Meeting of Bharata’ from Pavnār are of the same type, but they are much broader, reaching down to the ankles. One end of this cloth which covered the left thigh was tucked behind like a kachchha, while the other, after covering both the legs, was taken behind and after being tucked a little, was kept dangling like a tail. The lower garment was worn in a different manner in North India. Its pleats were gathered in front as seen in the sculptures at Sāñchī and Bharhut.² Such pleats or nīvīs are seen nowhere in the paintings of the Vākāṭaka age at Ajaṇṭā, while the dangling end at the back is noticed almost everywhere.³ In the Rājataraṅginī Kalhaṇa has given the following humorous description of this mode of wearing the lower garment by the southerners:- ‘The king (Lalitāditya) made the tail of the lower garment of the southerners touch the ground in order to show that they were beasts.⁴

... Women also wore their lower garment in a similar fashion. This is clear from one end of it dangling behind when they are shown seated or standing with the back turned towards others.⁵ Some women, however, wore their lower garment in the vikachchha fashion i.e. without the ends of it being tucked up behind. Some men wore a pair of shorts which were tied with a band called kaṭibandha.⁶ This kind of lower garment was called chaṇḍātaka From the Harshacharita we learn that women also used to wear such a chaṇḍātaka or underwear inside a long robe or kañchuka.⁷

... While engaged in active exercise, such as horse-riding or hunting, men used to put on trousers and a long coat with full sleeves over them. In the fresco representing the Mṛiga-Jātaka, the king who has gone a hunting is shown dressed in this manner.⁸ Many Gupta kings appear clad in the same fashion on their coins. Some servants also are shown with long-sleeved robes in Ajaṇṭā paintings.

... Men usually wore an upper garment (uttarīya) which, like the sacred thread, went over the left shoulder and below the right arm pit. This mode of wearing it kept the right arm free for movement. In some paintings the uttarīya is seen turned over on the left shoulder. Some persons used to fold it and wore it as a vaikakshaka across their breast.⁹ Some others took a long cloth and used it both as a lower and an upper garment.¹⁰ In some cases we find the uttarīya worn over a long-sleeved coat.¹¹

... In many paintings at Ajaṇṭā, the upper part of the bodies of kings, queens and rich persons appears to be bare, while their servants, male and female, are clad in garments. This prima facie appears strange, but the painter’s intention was to show that these men and women of high social status were wearing diaphanous clothes. Sanskrit poets describe these garments as niḥśvāsa-hārya.¹² (such as could be blown away by mere breath) or as sarpa-nirmōka-laghutara ¹³ (thinner than the sloughs of serpents). They also state that even
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¹ See Plate B.
² In the earlier paintings in Cave IX at Ajaṇṭā also such pleats are shown. See Ajanta, Part III, Pl. XVI.
³ Ibid., IV, Pl. XLVIII, LXV etc.
⁴ Rājataraṅgiṇī, IV, 180.
⁵ Ajanta, Part IV, Pl. LXIV(b).
⁶ Ibid., Part IV, Pl. LI(c).
⁷ Harshacharita (Nirṇayasāgar Press ed., 1912), pp. 31-32.
⁸ Ajanta, Part IV, Pl. LXVIII(c).
⁹ Ibid., Part IV, Pl. IV(c).
¹⁰ Ibid., Part IV, Pl. XV.
¹¹ Ibid., Part IV, Pl. XVII(a).
¹² Raghuvaṁśa Canto XVI, v. 43.
¹³ Harshacharita, pp. 31-32.