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.

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