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The Formless Potential

the sari

Shilpa Bisht, October 2009, IDC

The sari is the quintessential Indian emale garment.No other garment makes an Indian woman eel sowonderully eminine.It is an unstitched cloth, like the dhoti, as Hindusbelieved in the purity o the seamless.

Sari is then,essentially formless

. It takes the orm o the womanit is draped on. It takes dierent orms on dierentwomen. With an ever changing orm, it’s meaning neverchanges. It remains a sari, no matter who wears it,or how it is worn. The wearer attracts a sentiment orespect, evoking a traditionally grounded and rootedupbringing, o etiquette and elegance. There are morethan a dozen styles o wearing a sari across India.It has even been adapted in the uniorm or the womenin police orces, armed orces etc, wherein they wearthe sari with the uniorm shirt and not a blouse. SeniorSecondary school girls have saris as their uniorm, eventoday in some schools.Indian saris, like the rest o Indian culture, evolved overthe years rom much cultural exchange between regionsand communities.

Forces create the form of the sari

,in terms o its material (cotton, wool, silk) as per theraw materials in the regions, climate conditions.The motis are borrowed heavily rom nature and somerom mythology and cultural exchanges. The Phulkariprints o Punjab, reect their owering felds; the Bodoprints have motis derived rom erns ound at thataltitude. Some communities embroider on saris, somedye, some weave within the abric; the spectrum ostyles, patterns and techniques are densely packed.

The ormless cloth

As a piece o design, the sari has three areas: thelongitudinal borders, the endpiece (pallu), and the feld.The work done on each o these parts, the colours used,the motis made, reect not only the woman’s regionalidentity, even her social, amily and economic status.

The sari is a symbol

o her societal existence.For example, Brahmins and Jains wear white or purity,brides wear red in Hindus, married and unmarriedwomen wear sarees with a certain style o border;there is much coding in a sarees design.Saris have another very interesting side to them.They symbolise the weave o lie. They are gits otenexchanged on the hint o any occasion. They are thememoirs o the events in one’s lie. When my motherlooks at her sari collection, she speaks o them not asa sari rom Orissa or a Kanjeevaram (this does getspoken o some other time though), but as one whichwas gited by her mother to her, on the occasion o mybirth; as one which papa got or her rom Assam whenhe was posted there. I she were to arrange her sareeson a timeline, they would mark all the important eventsin her lie, almost like milestones, or simply as indexeso memories. A sari tying a marriage, a sari boughtrom one’s frst salary, a sari enveloping a birth, a saricongratulating a new job; the sari is a witness o lie’soccasions.

It goes beyond physicality

, into the realm omultiple meanings and multiple identities.I I were to wonder what thoughts would a draped sarievoke, I might be making no sense at all; nevertheless,it does evoke a visual in my head. I see the pleatsgathered at the waist, owing out rom the coverednavel, the cosmic centre, the womb, almost like salilam,the primeval waters. It ows along the body, wrapping itin an almost embryonic way, i the head is covered too.The sari as a ormless potential on a woman’s body.

Sarees as memoirsBodo weave, the border and plain feld