Dhoti kurta is the traditional Indian clothing of men.

Unlike other dresses, it is an unstitched piece of cloth

usually 5 yards long that is tied around the waist and legs. The knot is tied at the waist. Dhoti is known by
different names at different places such as Laacha in Punjabi, dhuti in Bangla, veshti in Tamil, panche in
Kannada, mundu or veshti in Malayalam, dhotar in Marathi, and pancha in Telugu etc. In Northern parts of India,
dhoti is worn along with Kurta and together the attire is called "Dhoti Kurta" [1]

How to Wear a Dhoti

 Take a long piece of unstitched cloth and measure as to how much cloth is required on either side of the
body.
 After having divided the cloth according to the measurements, tie a knot near the navel.
 Make a series of folds on the right side and tuck the folded part at the waist.
 Similarly, make a series of folds on the left side.[1]

Take the folded part of cloth from between your legs and then tuck it from behind and your dhoti has been
draped. In a few parts of Southern India, it is expected that men should be wearing veshti and angavastram
at the time of entering into the precincts of the temple.The strong believers and supporters of the Hare
Krishna movement have made dhoti their dress code. The practitioners wear saffron and white color clothing,
draped in the traditional style. Mahatma Gandhi used to wear the ethnic dress pancha on the public
functions. [1]

Mostly made in khaddar, medium weight to light weight, cotton cloth, polyester, terrycotton, kanchi-silk,
mysore-silk , and arani- silk fabrics, Venpattu , terry cotton , and recently, made in knitted fabric also [2]

In northern India the dhoti is worn with a Kurta on top, the combination known simply as "dhoti kurta", or a
"dhutipanjabi" in the East. In southern India, it is worn with an angavastram which is a another unstitched
cloth draped over the shoulders in Tamil Nadu or else with a "chokka"(shirt) in Andhra Pradesh or "jubba"
(a local version of kurta). On occasions Dhoti kurta is considered formal wear in India. [2]

Short dhoti (Knee length or just below knees): This dhoti is centralised. The upper selvege near centre front is
gathered, twisted over each other, rollded down and tucked in the right upper selvedge and taken between legs and
tucked at its mid with at centre back. The remaining selvedge is pleated and tucked at centre back. However, this still
leaves some of the fabric hanging free around the hip region, which is roughly gathered and tucked in at centre back
itself. Some people firstly put a knot at central front then the remaining fabric is given either of the following
treatments. Both the Lallas are passed between the legs and tucked in at the centre back. All the excess fabric is
tucked in at the centre back itself so that if forms a bulging bundle of cloth.

Do Lang Dhoti (Ankle length) : In this style, first the dhoti is draped around the waist so that equal lengths of the
dhoti are left hanging at either side and small double knots are made at the centre front to hold it on place. The
whole length of the upper selvedge is given knife pleats. These are tucked in at the centre front and the front fold
face towards left. The width of the right Pallav is passed between that is tucked is adjusted to the comfort of the
wearer thus leaving about half a meter cloth hanging. This piece of cloth is then brought over the side seen and
tucked into the waist with a remainder of the cloth gently cascading down. The left selvedge is also pleated with the
pleats tucked over the right pleats. Hereafter it is draped in the same style as the right leg [3].

In Andhra Pradesh production of one sq. metre of cotton dhoti requires on an average Rs. 0.51,in Uttar Pradesh
Rs. 0.62; Tamilnadu Rs. 0.70 and Maharashtra Rs. 1.05 of electricity.
1. Cultural India, (n.d.), Indian clothing, India, https://www.culturalindia.net/indian-clothing/dhoti.html.
2. Balakumar ,R.S. (2015), Dhoti: Indian Traditional Costume,
https://textilelearner.blogspot.com/2015/07/dhoti-indian-traditional-costume.html
3. Srivastav, M, Kour, S (2010), Study on traditional costumes and coiffure of male and female Rajput
community of Mewar region of Rajasthan, http://www.researchjournal.co.in/upload/assignments/5_94-
100.pdf