The sari is best described as a traditional dress worn by Indian women. It is an unstitched piece of cloth, approximately six meters in length, which drapes around the waist and legs, covers the chest and stomach and then casually falls over the shoulder.
Although it was originally worn by Hindu women, cultural interplay in India has made the sari somewhat a national dress worn by a majority of Indian women today. The dhoti is the male counterpart of the sari in that it is a similar piece of fabric like the sari, but worn by men in a slightly different fashion.
While the exact date of its origin is unknown, it is clear that saris date back to more than 5000 years ago and even the earliest pictorial and written records depict the Indian woman as being clad in a sari. Religious deities and idols of goddesses are also typically depicted as wearing a sari. Tailored clothing was introduced to India by its Muslim monarchs. However Hindus shunned this because of their belief that needles rendered cloth impure. During the period of Mughal rule in India, the salwar kameez gained popularity as it was the dress prescribed by the Muslim rulers. In spite of this, Hindu women were never forced to give up wearing the sari.
As a piece of clothing, the sari accentuates what is believed to be typically Indian features such as large hips and a heavy bosom. It reveals just as much or as little of the body as the wearer wishes to, without ever looking immodest. Over the years, multiple sari wearing styles have evolved, both out of a need to be comfortable while at work as well as out of a need to dress innovatively for special occasions. The most common style of draping a sari is the Nivi style. Other popular styles include the Gujarati, Maharashtrian, Kodagu and Gond styles.
Again out of both necessity and luxury, the sari has come to be available in a wide variety of fabrics ranging from comfortable cotton to dressy silk saris. Other popular sari fabrics include chiffon, crepe silk, polyester, nylon and rayon. The very first saris with designs were dyed cotton saris and saris with block prints. Today saris are intricately adorned with a variety of embellishments like zari, kundan, chikan, zardosi and kundan. Embroidered and hand-crafted saris are naturally more expensive than mass produced machine prints.
Urban Indian women today may be adopting western clothing but that does not spell the end of the sari in any way. On the contrary, the sari is fast gaining popularity in the western world and is also becoming a hot favorite for fashion designers and celebrities alike.
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