THE PEOPLE

DRESS

Satara District Hindus may be said to dress in much the same style as the Hindus elsewhere in Maharashtra do. The most distinguishing and common article of apparel for the male is the dhotar. This article still continues to be worn by all whether in the rural or urban areas and for centuries it has not altered in appearance. But all other articles of dress have undergone a transformation during the last thirty or forty years. They are such as the forbears of people two generations back could never have dreamt of. Only among Sardar and Jagirdar families the dhotar was often substituted by a vijar, a pyjama or colna. But loose pyjama or shorts are fast dethroning even the dhotar from its time-honoured place.. Formerly the male upper garments were upame, sela, sadara, pairan, bdrdbandi, kuclta, kopri, kabja, angarkha, serwdni and dagala. Now it is a shirt, a bush-shirt or bush-coat. The headdress used to be a pdgote, pagadl, mundase, rumat, patka or sapha, according to taste and means in various colours. Now, it is fashionable to go bare-headed or under the Gandhian influence, the male ensemble consists of a dhotar or pyjama, a long sadara called Nehru shirt and a Gandhi cap. These may not be necessarily handspun and hand-woven. In the urban areas, pants have become quite fashionable and a shirt or bush coat completes the dress. The old footwears have also gone. It is now a chappal, slippers or shoes. The western style of suits, hats, neckties and shoes, which became fashionable under the British rule has also disappeared. Underwears have come into vogue and even striped pyjamas as night-dress has become quite conspicuous in well-to-do house-holds of educated people in particular.

A Hindu woman's dress is the full Maratha sadi of nine yards and a short-sleeved coli reaching to the waist covering both the back and chest, the ends being tied in front. This sadi is known as lugade in Marathi and it can be coarse or fine, embroidered, jari or silk-bordered and in any gay colour according to taste and means. The mode of wearing it favoured by women of the Brahman and similar communities is with hind pleats tucked into the waist at the back centre- Maratha ladies allow it to hang from the waist down straight like skirt and draw its end which covers the bosom and back over the head. Sarees of five or six yards in length have become fashionable for the last twenty years among young ladies in the urban centres and they have now even invaded the villages. They are worn cylindrically over a parkar or ghagra, also called petticoat. The old fashioned coli is also discarded by them. The use of brassiers, blouses, polkas and zumpers has become quite common. A reversion to new types of colis in the form of blouses with low-cut necks, close-fitting sleeves up to the elbow and revealing the region about the lower ribs for a space of about three inches is noticed now-a-days. But such alterations have not succeeded in changing ' materially the general appearance of the women's dress. Women also use chappals and shoes.

A baby whether a boy or a girl is dressed in a cap called topare or kunci For every day use, angdis and jhablis are sewn. When the baby grows three or four years old, round or folded caps for the head, sadara or pairan for the upper part and caddi, tuman or colna for the lower part are sewn for the use of the boys. Small gowns or jhagas and parkars are made for the girls. Girls of eight or ten, if they do not keep up putting on frocks, parkars and colis, may start using a miniature sadi without passing the end over her shoulder like a grown-up woman; frocks are becoming fashionable even among college-going girls for the last few years. Hair styles have altered from time to time. The former buns are seen only among grown up and old women. Allowing braided hair on the back is the fashion. Robbed and cut hair are seen but rarely among Hindu women.

ORNAMENTS.

There is considerable difference between the ornaments used by the urban and the rural people as also by the rich and the poor. A caste-wise, traditional difference is also noticeable. Similarly, ornaments made for men and women and boys and girls are also different. Ladies in the urban areas prefer light and delicate ornaments set in patterns of gold and precious stones. Rich ladies in villages use gold ornaments, but they are heavy and crude. Ornaments used for the feet are always of silver and among the poor even less costly metals, because only princely and royal families can use gold for the feet according to custom. Poor people wear ornaments made of silver, copper, brass, stone and glass beads. Now-a-days cheaper but showy ornaments are getting into fashion. Use of artificial jewellery and glass beads is becoming common. Enormous increase in the price of gold during the last fifty years is responsible for this.

Men have almost given up using any decorative articles now-a-days, though a sowkar or a saraf may still be met with who wears a pearl ear-ring called bhikbali, a gold wristlet as poci and a gold neck-lace called goph or kantha. A chain of gold or silver round the waist was also fashionable once upon a time even though it could not be sported. A young man taking fancy for a thin gold chain with a locket round his neck is not quite rare. Persons wearing gold rings called angthis studded with pearls or precious stones may be seen and those among them who use pavitraks profess that they do so on religious grounds. Buttons, links, studs, collar-pins, tie-pins, wrist-watches of precious metals and set with precious stones are used by the rich. Silver kade and kargota are used by well-to-do villagers and agriculturists.

Fashions in female ornaments have undergone a complete transformation during the last fifty years. Heavy gold ornaments on, all limbs are now not popular. Head ornaments, worn in the hair have almost gone out of fashion. But they used to be found in conservative households till lately; they were mud, agraphul, rakhdi-, kelkl-kevda, gulabace phul, bindi-bijora, candra-surya, gonde-phul etc. Ear-ornaments like caucadi and kudi of pearls set in gold are still in vogue. Ear-ring of various types are now becoming fashionable. Among the neck-ornaments, mangalasutra is the most important which must always be worn by a married woman with her husband alive. It is now-a-days stringed together by different patterns of gold chains. Neck-laces known as candrahara, caplahara, jondhalipota, tandalipota, bakulihdra pushpahdra, mohanmala putalyacimalda, bormala, kolhapurisaj, ekdani, sari and vajratika, all of gold and petya, pota, lappha, tanmani and pende, made of pearls are in current use. Gold bangles of numerous patterns and Patya known as todicya, Puranacya Jalicya, paihlucya, phashyacya and minyacya all made of gold are still current but gradually falling into disuse. Costlier and heavier are tode of various patterns. Bangles studded with pearls, diamonds and precious stones are also in vogue but only in rich families. Armlets or vanki of the types known as rudraganth, tulabandi, hatricya and modvaki are still in wear. Among the nose ornaments nath is the most prominent and a peculiar ornament of Maratha women. It is made in gold frame with pearls and precious stones. Other minor nose decorations are the morni, mugvata, phuli and camki. Children's ornaments are Bindlya, mangatya, kaditode, vale, tordya sankhlya, hamuli which are made of gold and silver. But, leaving children without ornaments is becoming more fashionable.

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