SOUTH EAST ASIA (COMMONWEALTH UNION) – There has always been something alluring about 6 yards of cloth south Asian women wear wrapped around themselves, with the greater comfort and ease. This garment is called a sari. To start with there are different pronunciations and spelling to the word sari. Although most popularly spelled sari it can also be spelled as saree and also pronounced shari and spelled in the same manor.
It is popularly a women garment that comes from the Indian subcontinent. These 6 yards of material is one long piece. It is not pieced and stitched together unlike most female garments but rather one long piece of clothing that women drape around themselves. One end of this is tied around the waist and the second end is thrown over the shoulder.
The sari although is a modest garment there are times where the mid riff of a women can be seen depending on how the sari has been draped. The length of course sometimes is a little longer than 6 yards but almost never less than 6 yards. Of course, one can get a custom length done if required.
The sari is a form of ethnic wear in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. These are all South Asian countries. Of course just because these countries are all from the same region does not at any point mean that the sari is worn the same way or even pronounced the same. There are many variations of the sari with a numerous number of drapes. Of course the most common of the drapes in known as Nivi or Nivi style.
The sari itself is worn with a tight-fitting bodice of sorts which is known by several different names around South Asia. But the most commonly used ones are choli, ravike, kuppasa, cholo. It is also worn with an underskirt to keep the sari from being too revealing. But this too has many names most common of them being gharga, parkar or ul-pavadai.
Now we come to how the word sari came about. If you were to look at history you see that the word sari is a Hindustani word that which is if described in the Sanskrit language Sati comes to the meaning “strip of cloth” and there is also the Pali definition which is Sadi. It is from here that Sari was derived and is used by the modern-day women.
The word Satika is what describes women wearing dharmic attire in the literature written in Sanskrit as well as Buddhist literature called Jatakas. There is an argument saying that these garments could also be the modern day equivalent to a sari. It was the same with the bodice worn with the sari. In the literature it is referred to as stanapatta but it is called a choli in the modern day.
It was stated in the tenth century literary work Rajatarangini by Kalhana that the choli from Deccan was showcased under the Royal order in Kashmir.
The petticoat or underskirt as it is commonly known now is called saya in Hindu – Urdu. In Marathi it is referred to as a ul-pavadai. In Tamil it is called a pavada. In Sinhala it is referred to as yata saya. if not any of these there is the standard word also which most tailors use which is inner skirt or in skirt.
