Sari might be a fashionable garment now, but it started from being a humble drape used by women thousands of years ago. The origin of the drape or a garment similar to the sari can be traced back to the Indus Valley Civilisation, which came into being during 2800–1800 BC in north west India.
The beginning
The journey of sari began with cotton, which was first cultivated in the Indian subcontinent around 5th millennium BC. The cultivation was followed by weaving of cotton which became big during the era, as weavers started using prevalent dyes like indigo, lac, red madder and turmeric to produce the drape used by women to hide their modesty
The name
The garment evolved from a popular word 'sattika' which means women's attire, finds its mention in early Jain and Buddhist scripts. Sattika was a three-piece ensemble comprising the Antriya - the lower garment, the Uttariya - a veil worn over the shoulder or the head and the Stanapatta which is a chest band. This ensemble can be traced to Sanskrit literature and Buddhist Pali literature during the 6th century BC. The three piece set was known as Poshak, the Hindi term for costume.
Antriya resembled the dhoti or the fishtail style of tying a sari. It further evolved into Bhairnivasani skirt, which went onto be known as ghagra or lehenga. Uttariya evolved into dupatta and Stanapatta evolved into the choli.
Women traditionally wore various types of regional handloom saris made of silk, cotton, ikkat, block-print, embroidery and tie-dye textiles. Most sought after brocade silk sarees are Banarasi, Kanchipuram, Gadwal,Paithani, Mysore, Uppada, Bagalpuri, Balchuri, Maheshwari, Chanderi, Mekhela, Ghicha, Narayan pet and Eri etc.
Evolution
Years later with the advent of foreigners, the rich Indian women started asking the artisans to use expensive stones, gold threads to make exclusive saris for the strata, which could make them stand out, clearly. But sari did remain unbiased as a garment and was adapted by each strata, in their own way. That was the beauty of the garment, that still remains.
With industrialisation entering India, with the Britishers, synthetic dyes made their official entry. Local traders started importing chemical dyes from other countries and along came the unknown techniques of dyeing and printing, which gave Indian saris a new unimaginable variety.
The development of textiles in India started reflecting in the designs of the saris - they started including figures, motifs, flowers. With increasing foreign influence, sari became the first Indian international garment.
What started as India's first seamless garment, went onto become the symbol of Indian femininity.
- Source : Times of India