Traditional textiles and

costumes of India
Harappa Period to the
Mauryan Times
A civilization that flourished 4500 years ago
The materials unearthed from Mohanjadaro and
Harappa are not enough
A bust of a bearded man shows a shawl drawn over
the left shoulder and under the right arm
nothing can be inferred about the lower garment.
The right arm has an armlet and the hair is secured
by a fillet.
A male figure on a shred appears to be wearing a
close clinging loin-cloth.
Deities represented on the amulets wear only a
thin band round the loin
Clay figurines of the mother goddess are bare to
the waist and have jewellery and a scanty
kneelength loin cloth held by a girdle or strings.
There is no evidence of footwear.
Traditional textiles and
costumes of India
Harappa Period to the
Mauryan Times
Actual specimens of a complete garment are
totally absent
it is also hard to believe that dress was of
little concern to these inhabitants of the city
civilization who knew how to lay out their
city with straight bathrooms, use beautifully
painted fine pottery, wear ornaments of gold
and semiprecious stones and weave cotton
clothes.
Traditional textiles and
costumes of India
Harappa Period to the
Mauryan Times
located 400 miles southwest of
Harappa, a place called Mohenjo-Daro. Its
people built hundreds
of planned cities, the first in the world, and
had
trade links with Mesopotamia and Oman.
Men and women dressed in colorful
robes. Women wore jewelry of gold and
precious
stone, and even wore lipstick! Among the
treasures
found was a statue of a woman wearing a
bracelet.
Traditional textiles and
costumes of India
Harappa Period to the
Mauryan Times
Art Mohanjadaro
This ancient civilization must have had
marvelous craftsmen, skilled in pottery,
weaving,
and metalworking. The pottery that has been
found
is of very high quality, with unusually
beautiful
designs. Several small figures of animals,
such as
monkeys, have been found. There are also
small
statues of what they think are female gods.
Traditional textiles and
costumes of India
Harappa Period to the
Mauryan Times
Ornaments
This head ornament was made of steatite
micro beads, each measuring only one
millimeter in diameter. It was found on the
head of a male buried in a cemetery at
Harappa and probably served as a hair
decoration.
The manufacture of these incredibly tiny
micro beads involved drilling each rough-cut
piece of steatite and polishing them and was
a skilled laborious process
Traditional textiles and
costumes of India
Harappa Period to the
Mauryan Times
Female figurine with three sets of chokers
and necklaces. This is one of the largest
female figurines found at Harappa and it has
the common fan shaped headdress with cups
on either side of the head.
Traditional textiles and
costumes of India
Harappa Period to the
Mauryan Times
Aryan Civilization Daily Life, the Vedic
& Epics Periods (1500-500 BC)
The various parts of the Vedic apparel were
consecrated to different deities.
words like suvasa (splendid garment),
suvasana (well clad) And surabhi (well-fitting
clothes)were used in Rigveda
According to Rigveda a person's dress
(vasana or vastra) consisted of only two
garmets, namely the vasa (lower garment)
and the adhivasa (upper garment).
Skins and grass (kusa) -associated with
munis, rishis, hermits and forest tribes.
Maruts wore deer-skins.
The word atka appears to mean a closefitting
garment and drapi may have been a gold
embroidered mantle.
The tilak or bindi is from Aryan period
Traditional textiles and
costumes of India
Harappa Period to the
Mauryan Times
Evidence from Rigveda
The word pesas could have been used for a
kind of embroidered garment of female
dancers.
Vadhuya-a special apparel used by a bride at
the marriage ceremony
The difference between the dress of men
and women appears to be insignificant
In the Rigveda there is no mention of a
headdress or footwear.
Traditional textiles
and costumes of India
Harappa Period to the
Mauryan Times
Dress in the age of the later Samhitas and
Brahmanas
consisted of three garments:
nivi (lower garment)
vasa (a garment proper)
adhivasa (an upper garment like a mantle or
cloak).
Satapatha Brahmana describes the various
articles of dress prescribed for men intent on
sacrifice.
silk lower garment (tarpaya)-a garment of
undyed wool
an upper garment
And
a turban (ushnisha).
turbans were worn both by men and women.
Clothes were generally woven of sheep's wool.
references occur regarding urna-sutra (woollen
thread).