From Kavita Mahato’s barefoot 1,600-metre sprint to warrior queens and marathon runners, the 5,000-year-old unstitched drape has never slowed Indian women down
For Kavita Mahato, a widow raising two young children in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh district, the track was just another hurdle to clear. Barefoot and draped in a sari, she ran the 1,600-metre trial for the Jharkhand Home Guard recruitment drive, and the internet could not look away.
Asked why she skipped the usual running gear, her answer was disarmingly simple: the sari is all she is comfortable in, and it’s what makes running easiest for her.
Soft garment, steely resolve
She is not alone. Actor and model Milind Soman’s mother, Usha Soman, at 82, is known for running, planking, and doing push-ups draped in six graceful yards of sari. Inspired by his mother’s love for the garment, Milind Soman shared plans to design lightweight saris ideal for running.
Madhusmita Jena, an Odia based in the UK, has been running half and full marathons wearing Sambalpuri handloom saris. Earlier this year, she broke Mumbai’s Kranti Salvi’s Guinness World Record for being the fastest woman marathon runner in a sari at the Adidas Manchester Marathon.
Also read: How sari is being reimagined as ‘sacred couture’ with spiritual symbols
Mahato, Soman and Jena may be internet sensations, but there are millions of Indian women for whom sari — seen as a cumbersome drape by many today — is an everyday garment and, work or play in it is a breeze. This writer's mother, for one, could play tennis, ride a horse, and run, totally unhampered, in these six yards of cloth which today’s youngsters find so intimidating.
Textile historian and scholar Rta Kapur Chishti describes the sari as a magical unstitched garment capable of adapting to any movement, activity, or climate without structural constraints.
People like Kamala Devi Chattopadhay, Rukmini Arundale, and Sarojini Naidu wore only saris. Kamala Devi, credited with reviving handlooms in India, was known to wade in water, hitching up her sari with one hand to visit small pockets where weavers lived. It called for limitless travel, often in bullock carts, into remote villages, not knowing what weaving centres awaited their arrival.
Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi wore only saris for public appearances and owned a collection of rare traditional saris. Her daughter-in-law and senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi follows suit.
Textile historian and scholar Rta Kapur Chishti, who documented 108 traditional regional drapes across India in her seminal work Saris: Tradition and Beyond, describes the sari as a "magical unstitched garment" capable of adapting to any movement, activity, or climate without structural constraints.
Shield from sun, baby’s comforter
Dating back to over 5,000 years, with its likely genesis in the Indus Valley Civilisation, the sari has stood the test of time as a single unstitched garment assuming several need-based avatars with the passage of years.
The sari is deeply embedded in the Indian identity, and women in the colonial era wore it proudly; it was more a part of their skin. Soft, fragile saris, usually made of cotton or linen, kept them comfortable and they could just about do anything in it.
Fabrics like cotton and linen are hygroscopic, meaning they pull sweat and moisture away from the skin to keep you dry and fresh during long hours. Women wore hand-woven, lightweight handloom weaves suited to tropical heat. The fabric allowed constant air circulation, keeping the body cool during hard labour and household chores.
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This ubiquitous garment could be put to several uses. The long stretch of cloth acted as more than just a garment; it could double up as a head covering against the sun, a shoulder wrap for warmth, a carrier for small items, or a quick towel for drying the hair after a head wash.
The sari was used as a makeshift cradle for infants, called thooli in Tamil, often balanced by low tree branches so that the young mother could keep an eye on the child while she worked. It is believed that the sari held the smells of the mother, and cradled the baby in the way it was hung and babies seldom cried when they lay in sari-cradles.
Warriors to queens to ladies
The sari as an everyday garment persisted for centuries, worn by the majority of Indian women at all levels of society, thanks to its fluidity and comfort in wear. Most women found the Nivi style of wearing the garment most practical and presentable right from the early 20th century.
Slowly, sartorial tastes underwent a sea change, and fashion influencers like Rabindranath Tagore’s sister-in-law Jnanadanandini introduced sari petticoats for a slimmer silhouette, and sari blouses which had long sleeves, high necks and ruffles. She accompanied her civil servant husband Satyendranath Tagore on his posting to Bombay wearing these drapes. No doubt it attracted the aristocracy to imitate her styles and remain fashionable while still choosing to wear a sari.
Dating back to over 5,000 years, the sari has stood the test of time as a single unstitched garment assuming several need-based avatars with the passage of years.
Social changes affected the texture and designs of the sari, and high society women were enamoured by foreign fabrics like chiffon to keep up with the current fashion statements during the colonial rule.
Also read: A prized possession for generations, why Mysore silk saris are failing to keep up with demand
The Maharani of Cooch Bihar, Indira Devi, and her mother Maharani Gayathri Devi of Jaipur, fashion icons of their time, wore their saris with grace melded with sophistication. The sari was an all-time favourite with them despite their Western upbringing.
When you look at historical images by artists like Ravi Varma, you see women like Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi or Jijabai, the Maratha queen (who looked after a young Shivaji); you can note the way the sari is adapted for warrior queens, who rode horses and plunged into battle and those who never thought of the sari as a restrictive garment.
One fabric, many drapes
One of the greatest mysteries of the sari is that it has survived centuries well into contemporary times. Women from diverse fields have made changes in this drape according to their sphere of work. Field workers wear pleats at the back and the long pallu pleated and tucked at the waist so as not to hamper their work. This was possible because the sari offered them practical, everyday comfort: a breathable fabric worn during manual labour, braving hot weather and accommodating changing body contours.
The sari has made inroads into the field of classical dance as well, where the most difficult of movements have been possible while wearing a sari. True, in contemporary times, the drape has been converted into a costume to make movements easier, yet it retains the main features of the sari.
Also read: Why Patan Patola is the Hermes of saris
The sari doubles up as the ideal garment for formal wear, and is worn by businesswomen and bureaucrats with elan.
The garment has not lagged in sports, with women like Mahato running races and marathons in saris. While her example is only the latest reminder of the beauty and functionality of the drape, there is every reason that the sari, which has adapted and remained relevant for millennia, will continue to do so.
