Describe the dress of the men and women in the Rig Vedic period.
Answers
Explanation:
The Vedic age or the Vedic period was the time duration between 1500 and 500 BC
The garments worn in Vedic period mainly included a single cloth wrapped around the whole body and draped over the shoulder. People used to wear the lower garment called paridhana which was pleated in front and used to tie with a belt called mekhala and an upper garment called (covered like a shawl) which they used to remove during summers. "Orthodox males and females usually wore the uttariya by throwing it over the left shoulder only, in the style called upavita".
There was another garment called pravara that they used to wear in cold. This was the general garb of both the sexes but the difference existed only in size of cloth and manner of wearing. Sometimes the poor people used to wear the lower garment as a only while wealthy would wear it extending to the feet as a sign of prestige .
Sari was the main costume for women in . Women used to wrap it around their waist, pleated in front over the belly and drape it over their shoulder covering their bust area and fastened it with a pin at the shoulder. ‘Choli’ or blouse, as an upper garment was introduced in the later Vedic period with sleeves and a neck. A new version of sari, little smaller than sari, called dupatta, was also incorporated later and it was used to wear along with ghaghara (frilled skirt up to feet). The word sari is derived from शाटी śāṭī
which means 'strip of cloth'and शाडी śāḍī or साडी sāḍī in , and became sāṛī in Hindi. Most initial attires of men in those times were dhoti and lungi. Dhoti is basically a single cloth wrapped around the waist and by partitioning at the center, is fastened at the back. A dhoti is from four to six feet long white or colour strip of cotton.
Generally, in those times, no upper garment was worn and Dhoti was the only single clothing that men used to drape it over their bodies. Later on, many costumes evolved like kurtas, pajamas, trousers, turbans, etc. Wool, linen, diaphanous silks and were the main fibres used for making cloth and patterns with grey strips and checks were made over clothes.
In the , mainly three terms were described like Adhivastra, Kurlra and Andpratidhi for garments which correspondingly denotes the outer cover (veil), a head-ornament or head-dress (turban) and part of woman's dress. Many evidences are found for ornaments like Niska, Rukma were used to wear in the ear and neck; there was a great use of gold beads in necklaces which show that gold was mainly used in jewellery. Rajata-Hiranya (), also known as silver was not in that much of use as no evidence of silver is figured out in the Rig Veda.
In the Atharva Veda, garments began to be made of inner cover, an outer cover and a chest-cover. Besides Kurlra and Andpratidhi (which already mentioned in the Rig Veda), there are other parts like as Nivi, Vavri, Upavasana, Kumba, Usnlsa, and Tirlta also appeared in Atharva Veda, which correspondingly denotes underwear, upper garment, veil and the last three denoting some kinds of head-dress (head-ornament). There were also mentioned Updnaha (Footwear) and kambala (blanket), Mani (jewel) is also mentioned for making ornaments in this Vedic text.