THE PEOPLE

DRESS

The style of dress of the Kolaba Hindus which falls in the general category of Maharastrian is now much the same for all communities, the noticeable differences chiefly in material being due to difference in wealth. Because of the climate of the district which is moist and warm all the year round the people generally are found sparing in the use of clothes.

Child Dress.

At home the children of the poor, both boys and girls, wear no clothes till they are six or seven. After that a boy wears a privity-strip langoti and a girl a piece of cloth wrapt round the Child Dress. waist. Among the well-to-do the use of swaddling clothes baloti for the infant, and of that of top are (hood) and kunci (cape) for the baby is made. For everyday use of the child, sewn garments such as angadi, jhabli, bandi or peti are current. Boys start using for the upper part shirts such as sadara and pairan, and for the lower part short pants, caddi, tuman or ijdr. Caddi (panties), parakar (petticoat), coli, or polka (bodice) and jhagd (frock) are the items of a girl's dress.

Male Dress.

Among the poorest classes including field and town labourers and the tribals, adult males generally wear indoors a langoti: a square piece of cloth first passed at the front by its corner over the waist-cord or girdle and its corner then drawn tightly between the divide of the buttocks and tucked behind; the surplus front portion may be allowed to dangle loose or passed between the legs and secured cleverly so as to cover the buttocks. The Son-Kolis as their speciality allow this large surplus to dangle as a flap, its sides covering almost the mid-thighs and its diagonal edge hanging between the calves and even little lower. [Ghurye G. S., Indian Costumes, Bombay 1951, p. 197.] Outdoors may be worn a short waist-cloth (panca) in dhoti-fashion with a back-tuck, or just wrapped about the loins to make up for the deficiency of a langoti. In cold and wet weather he wears a kabja (armless jacket) or a kopri (tunic with half sleeves) and throws a ghongadi (coarse blanket) over his shoulders, or ties it in a hood and draws it over his head. A husbandman or a craftsman wears indoors a loincloth and a waistcoat such as bandi, kudate, kabjd or kopari; outdoors he uses a waistcloth or shorts, a sadard or shirt, a jacket or a waistcoat and a cap or a rumal (head-scarf).

Indoors a well-to-do gentleman wears a dhotar (waist-cloth), a sadara, pairan, or half-shirt, or a knitted vest or underwear known as ganjiphrak. His outdoor ensemble includes a dhotar of finer count, a shirt, a waistcoat jdkit and a coat, a cap, and vahanas (sandals) or cappals. Old-fashioned elderly persons may wear a loosely rolled head-scarf rumal or pheta and a shoulder-cloth uparne. Now-a-days a few persons wear outdoors a Nehru shirt with or without a waistcoat kabja, and a Gandhi cap. It needs be noted here that traditional dress items such as the taped waistcoat barabandi, dhotee with broad silk border, preformed turban pagadi, and red slippers (Brdhmani) joda are now almost extinct.

The wardrobe of a well-to-do educated 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 combinations: (1) A lengha (loose trousers or slacks) and a long shirt of the 'Nehru' type, or a pair of short pants 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 in combination with a shirt or a half-shirt, a bush-coat or a bush-shirt. 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 waistcoat, a coat and a necktie. For ceremonial occasion he may prefer to dress after Indian style in a serwani or acakan and survar. Among the urbanite young men the use of dhotar and a cap which is getting rare is in some evidence among the middle-aged.

Female Dress.

The women's dress consists of a sadi (robe) and a coli (bodice). The saris sported by women of the district are of two types: one with a width of forty-five to fifty inches is eight to nine yards in length, and the other generally forty-five inches in width is five to six yards in length. Both the types have lengthwise decorative borders called kinar on the two sides, and two breadthwise borders called padars at the two ends, of which, the one intended for display is more decorated than the other. The nine yards sari is known as lugade or sadi in Marathi and is generally worn by elderly ladies and women of rural parts. Saris of five to six yards are usually worn by girls or modern fashionable ladies who necessarily wear a foundation of a parkar (petticoat) and an underwear (caddi) The mode of wearing the lugade or the nine yards sari favoured by all the Hindu women in the district is with the hind pleats tucked into the waist at the back-centre and the ornamental end (padar) of the sari passed from back of the waist under the right arm, drawing it across the chest and over the left shoulder. This mode of wearing the sari is known as sakaccha nesana as opposed to golnesana (round mode of wear) getting popular with girls and fashionable ladies wearing saris of five to six yards in length and allowing the wrap from the waist down to hang straight like a skirt. In the manner of wearing the sari with hind pleats, the lower ends of the front pleats may be neatly drawn up and tucked for the sake of tidiness or as among more progressive classes a clever use of garters is made to catch the edges of the pleats and neatly cover the exposed lower shanks.

The coli (bodice) characteristic of. the region is a close-fitting apparel covering only about half the length of the back, and is fastened in position by a knot tied with flaps centrally just under the breasts. Its sleeves for respectability has to reach the region of the elbows. The fashionable urbanites have to some extent discarded this old-fashioned attire and have taken to the use of brassiers, blouses, polkas, and jumpers. But in their case a reversion to new types of colis in the form of blouses with low-cut necks, close-fitting sleeves up to the elbow, covering only half the distance from neck down the back and in front only the bosom, leaving bare the upper abdomen, is noticed.

The mode of wearing the sari followed generally by women of the working and agricultural classes, and the tribals is characteristically peculiar. Among them the sari which is smaller than the standard one is worn short, hardly reaching below the knees; and the front pleats are so few and tucked up that there are hardly any left to dangle about. [Ghurye, op, cit., p. 195,] The end of the sari which they draw from the right across the chest is not allowed to hang on the back but is brought to the front from underneath the right arm and tucked into the waist-band. The Agri women, perhaps because they have so much wet and muddy walking, wind the sari so tightly round the waist and thighs as to leave the greater part of the leg bare. Similarly, the Son-Koli woman who wraps her nine yard sari tightly round the waist, does not allow it to fall more than half the way to the knees, and has the hind pleats tightly drawn in, resting closely in the divide of the buttocks; the padara is tightly drawn over the back and its end is tucked in at the front. Her bodice has invariably much longer sleeves and a longer back and front. Over all this she wears a scarf thrown almost neglige over the back and bosom.

Of the tribals, the Katkari woman wears the sari wound round the waist and drawn up between the thighs and braced up tightly covering her nakedness up to the knee. One end of the sari (padar) is passed from the right across the chest and over the left shoulder after the Kunbi fashion and it sometimes covers the head too. [Weling A. N., The Katkaris, p. 37.] The Thakur woman has the peculiar way of wearing the sari which is not passed over the shoulder to cover the bodice. Ka women do not normally wear a bodice but leave their breasts bare, but Ma women at present invariably wear a bodice. After marriage, Ka women leave the left buttock uncovered as it is sup-posed to belong to the maker, the father's family. [Chapekar L. N., Thakurs of the Sahyadris, p. 13.] The Mahadeo Koli female who belongs to an advanced tribal community now dresses like the Kunbi of the Deccan and neither wears the hind pleats tightly drawn in nor makes use of the phadki (scarf) [Ghurye G, S., Mahadeo Kolis, p. 25,]

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