 |
THE PEOPLE AND THEIR CULTURE |
 |
DRESS.
THE DRESS ENSEMBLE OF THE HINDUS OF KOLHAPUR
DISTRICT, who could be included in the general category of
Maharastrians, is a blending of different items of dress shared in
common with people all over India. The distinction of their dress
lies not so much in the articles of wear as in the manner of wear.
Apart from the dressware after European style, introduced through
contact with British rulers for a considerable length of time and
which is still in vogue among many educated urbanites, the following
items of dress of the people may be said to have been indigenously
evolved: Male lower garment:- Langoti, langota,
langa, caddi, panca dhotar,
colana, ijar, tuman, pyjama,
suravar. Male upper garment:-Uparni, sela,
sadara, pairan, barabandi, bandi,
kudate, kopari, dandki, kabja,
angara-kha, dagala, acakan, servani.
Male head-dress:-Topi, pagote,
pagadi, mundase, rumal, pataka,
sapha.
Female dress:-Coli, parakar,
sadi, lugade, patal, sal, salu,
paithani.
Child dress:-Angade, galute,
jhabale for the trunk and topare kucade,
kunci for the head.
Male-dress.
The labouring and agricultural classes are neat and
clean in their dress but seldom rich enough to indulge their taste
for finery. The well-to-do are fond of gay clothes, the men wearing
generally voluminous red and white turbans known as rumals
and patkas and women heavy coloured lugadis
(robes). The Kunbi rolls a loincloth (short dhoti) round his
waist, covers his body with a waistcloth or a kabja (armless
jacket) or a dandke (vest) and a sadara (shirt), and
wears a turban on his head and a paitan (sandal) on his feet.
In cold and wet weather he throws a ghongadi (coarse blanket)
over his shoulders, or ties it in a hood and draws it over his head.
Besides being worn as articles of dress, the blanket and waist-cloth
are used as sleeping mats and for carrying clothes and garden stuff.
The middle classes wear clothes of the same form as
those worn by the rich but of cheaper quality. Indoors a well-to-do
urbanite of an orthodox trend wears a dhotar, a
pairana, or a half-shirt, and either leaves his feet bare or
sometimes walks on khadavas (wooden clogs). The dhoti (about
50 inches wide and four or four and a half yards long) is generally
worn in such a way that the left side portion is drawn up and tucked
behind and the right side remainder is folded breadthwise into a few
pleats and tucked at the navel. It is customary for many people to
fold the hind portion of the dhoti in pleats about three
inches broad and tuck them behind tightly and flatly in a bunch. The
front pleats are carefully smoothed and a few of them are taken up
and tucked over the already tucked-up bunch at the navel. The
well-to-do Maratha usually wears indoors a colna, ijar
or tuman. If he wears a waist-cloth it is short and the
puckers in front and behind are few, the ends hanging and fluttering
loose.
While going out a gentleman puts on a shirt or a
sadara over a muslin or knitted underwear,. then sometimes a
waistcoat (its use has now considerably dwindled), over it then an
uparne (shoulder cloth); the use of this cloth has also
considerably dwindled; a cap or a rumal (headscarf) and on
ceremonial occasion a sapha or patka (silk or cotton
headscarf) is his head-dress. Now-a-days many persons wear out of
doors a " Nehru shirt" with or without a kabja (waist-coat)
and a " Gandhi cap ". Many men, particularly from among the
educated, go out in a pair of trousers or pyjamas and a
shirt, with a hat on or bare headed, and after carrying a walking
stick. The wardrobe of the well-to-do young man may consist of all
the items of the western-dress ensemble including the " bush shirt"
and " bush coat" of recent origin.; His outdoor dress varies between
three types. (1) A pyjama and a long shirt of the " Nehru"
type, or a pair of short-pant and a shirt, the two flaps of the
shirt being allowed to hang loose on the shorts or being tucked
inside them. (2) A pair of trousers to combination with a shirt or a
half-shirt, a bush-shirt or a bush-coat. The shirt is tucked
underneath the trousers and its sleeves may be rolled up in a band
above the elbow. (3) A full western suit including trousers, shirt,
perhaps a waist-coat and a necktie. For ceremonial occasion he
prefers to dress after Indian style in a servani or acakan
and a survar. Among the urbanite young men it is now-a-days
rare to find one wearing a dhotar which is in some evidence
among the middle-aged.
Female-Dress.
The woman's dress is the full Maratha
sari (robe) and the short sleeved coli (bodice)
reaching to the waist covering both the back and chest the ends
being tied in front. The sari generally worn by elderly
ladies is eight to nine yards in length and forty-five to fifty-two
inches in width, and is known as lugade in Marathi. The mode
of wearing the sari favoured by ladies of the Brahmin and
similar classes is with hind pleats tucked into the waist at the
back-centre; Maratha ladies allow the sari from the waist
down to hang straight like a skirt and draw its end which covers the
bosom and back over the head. Saris of five to six yard
length which are known as sadis in Marathi are getting
popular with the younger urbanites and are worn in golnesan
(round mode of wear) fashion, over a foundation of parkar or
ghagra (petticoat). They have discarded the old fashioned
coli and taken to the use of brassiers, blouses, polkas, and
jumpers. A reversion to new types of colis in the form of
blouses with low-cut necks, close-fitting sleeves upto the elbow,
and revealing the region about the lower ribs for a space of one to
three inches is noticed now-a-days. These changes, however, have not
materially changed the general appearance of their dress.
Child-Dress.
A baby, whether a boy or a girl, wears a cap known
as topare or kucade or a kunci which is a cap
and a frock together. For every day use of the baby angdis
and jhablis (frocks) are sewn. When the baby grows three or
four years old, round or folded caps for the head, sadara,
pairana for the upper part and caddi, tuman or
colna for the lower part are sewn for the use of boys; small
gowns or jhagas and parakars (petticoats) are sewn for
girls. Girls of eight or ten, if they do not persist in the wear of
frocks, parakars and colts (bodice), may start using a small
robe or sadi without passing the end over her shoulder like a
grown up woman.
| 
