Saree (also spelled as Sari) has been the traditional wear for Indian Women for more than 4 millennia! That’s right, not centuries, but millennia! It dates back to Indus Valley Civilization, wherein the Saree then was made of three pieces – A blouse sort of a thing worn around the chest called Stanapatta, a lower garment Antriya, and an upper garment called Uttariya, all together called a Saatika. They were mainly made of cotton, colored using natural dies. Silk also was found first time in India around the same time, 2000-2500 BC, but it is not clear if it came through the silk route from China, or whether it was a locally discovered, but the thread was found to be of extreme strength and was eventually spread across the entire nation along with civilizations.
Over the course of time, various civilizations, kingdoms, religions, tribes, trade, technology lead to the discovery of various new fabrics, new types of design work, and various types of draping styles of saree. The most important thing to observe is that it survived for more than 4000 years of time, and it is here to stay! Period.
This will be a series of two posts. We shall see two different aspects of the saree.
- (This post) Geographical map of the saree with stories of origins and heritage
- The various draping styles of a saree in different regions and evolution though time
The following map of India shows the specialty of each state in terms of what kind of sarees they manufacture and sell, a very short brief on how and when they originated, and what is the uniqueness of each such tradition and fabric. You can hover your mouse, it will show what all types of sarees belong to a particular state, and you can click for the complete summary of those styles, with some graphic examples.