Saree Blouse: A Historical Understanding
In India, the blouse as a garment is normally associated with the saree. The graceful saree is as old as the Indian civilisation documented in scriptures, sculptures, and in inscriptions going back more than a millennium. There is no dispute amongst scholars regarding its antiquity or its origin, the latter being within the Indian subcontinent.
The story of the blouse, however, has many different narratives. In recent times, several scholars credit Jnanadanandini, sister-in-law of Rabindranath Tagore, with introducing and, in most other sources, for popularising the blouse[1] amongst women in India. She has also been credited for popularising both Brahmika and Nivi[2] draping styles of the saree. Several social media content creators seem to have gone overboard with this information without doing thorough research on the topic. The misconception has also been propagated by leading media houses such as the BBC, The Economic Times[3], The Indian Express, etc. Author Jasvinder Kaur,[4] in her book titled Influences of the British Raj on the Attire and Textiles of Punjab mentions the contribution of Jnanadanandini Tagore as somewhat of a pioneer of the modern-day draping of a saree with a petticoat and a blouse. It is said that Jnanadanandini found inspiration from British attire where the petticoat and bodice were common elements of women’s clothes, especially during the Victorian era. No doubt, the book carries some interesting information about evolution and introduction of elements of textiles and attires in the Punjab region specifically, but the information on saree draping would appear to be factually incorrect. Another book, The Sari,[5] by authors Mukulika Banerjee and Daniel Miller, reproduces the same fallacy. Naturally, this fallacy gets repeated across articles in media platforms and is soon picked up by social media influencers and retail companies who conveniently add this bit of “interesting and appealing” information on their websites.[6]
However, one just has to see the murals on the walls of ancient monuments like the Ajanta Caves, check illustrations on old manuscripts and peruse old travelogues and illustrations by authors who travelled to India in the past several centuries to see for themselves the fact about blouses. Illustration after illustration, predating the life of the said lady of the Tagore family, depict native women wearing the blouse along with the saree. And these are not just women from the elite class – these are fisherwomen, labourers etc. the subalterns of society.
Early Mentions of an Upper Garment
The Ajanta Caves, built between 2nd century BCE and 6th century CE,[7] are richly decorated with wall paintings depicting the ruler of the time and his life. Wall paintings of Cave 1 show several women in tunics. A particular mural of dancing girls with musicians in this cave[8] (Image A) depicts one of the dancing girls donned in a fitted top garment with a long apron like extension in the front. The garment even has fitted full sleeves. Such precise fitting of a garment proves that Indians were adept in sewing and tailoring, and these skills would have developed over a few preceding centuries. However, the wearing of a top garment was not a norm amongst the fairer sex as the murals at Ajanta depict more women bare-chested than in tunics.
Image A
Source of Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ajanta_dancing_girl_now_and_then.jpg
Alberuni, who visited India in the 11th century of the common era, wrote an exhaustive volume documenting his observations about the Hindus, their culture and religion even details of the science and maths practised. He writes the following on the dress worn by Hindu men and women:
They use turbans for trousers. Those who want little dress are content to dress in a rag of two fingers’ breadth, which they bind over their loins with two cords; but those who like much dress, wear trousers lined with so much cotton as would suffice to make a number of counterpanes and saddle-rugs. These trousers have no (visible) openings, and they are so huge that the feet are not visible. The string by which the trousers are fastened is at the back.
Their șidâr (a piece of dress covering the head and the upper part of the breast and neck) is similar to the trousers, being also fastened at the back by buttons.
The lappets of the kurțakas (short shirts from the shoulders to the middle of the body with sleeves, a female dress) have slashes both on the right and left sides.[9]
Obviously, the șidâr and the Kurtakas were sewn garmentsand so are the trousers mentioned in the first paragraph. The buttons and sleeves on the former two garments can only be done by sewing, while trousers can only be a sewn garment. The description of kurtakas, especially with mention of the distinctive open sides, is very similar to the kurtis or shirts worn as part of the traditional attire by women in Haryana even today.[10]
The upper garment of the dancing girl at Ajanta and Alberuni’s Kurtakas were nothing but earlier versions of our present-day saree blouse.
The illustrations shared below emphatically counter the misplaced belief that the blouse is a relatively modern addition and also the various styles of draping a sari. Each of the illustrations are accompanied by the relevant portions zoomed in.
- Painting in Brihadeeswara Temple, Thanjavur, India, built in the 11th century.
Source of Image:https://isharethese.com/chola-paintings-Brihadeeswara-tanjore-big-temple/
This painting depicts the marriage of God Shiva and Goddess Parvati. Take a close look at Parvati’s dress. Do not miss the draping style and the blouse worn with the saree. The top garment is exactly like the blouse worn today and the saree is draped in the Nivi style.
- Another painting from Brihadeeswara Temple, Thanjavur, India. This depicts God Ganesha with his consorts Ridhi and Siddhi. Again, a closer look will reveal the blouse is just like the blouse worn today and the saree drape is the Nivi drape.
Source of Image: https://ugra1515.blogspot.com/2020/02/thanjavur.html
- Illustration from Kalpa Sutra by Bhadrabahu, 14th Century. Check the types of stylish blouses worn by the women depicted in this illustration. Woman on the left is wearing a blouse with full sleeves, whereas the three women on the right are wearing blouses with sleeves having large keyhole cut outs – quite fashionable!
Source of Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalpa_S%C5%ABtra#/media/File:Detail_of_a_leaf_with_the_birth_of_mahavira.jpg
- Rajasthani painting of 1712; Titled: Rishyasringa and the Courtesans. This Rajasthani miniature painting of the early eighteenth century depicts the blouse as close fitted garment worn with a lehenga or ghagra. (flared skirt) A separate piece of fabric is draped by first tucking into the ghagra and then wound around to go over the head – and then, in some cases, left loose to cover the chest. This is the dupatta or chunni as we call it today. Same thing is depicted in Illustration No 4. Do not miss the undergarment which looks quite familiar.
Source of Image: https://imagesonline.bl.uk/asset/7508
- Rajasthani Painting circa 1710
Source of Image: https://imagesonline.bl.uk/asset/7501
- Illustration dated 1795
These are dancing girls with musicians. The blouses of both the dancers are very similar to the modern style worn with the sarees. The bottom garments include a pyjama or trousers over which a saree has been tied in the Nauvari or Madisar style where the saree after being wrapped around the waist is then drawn from between the legs and tucked at the back. And lastly a chunni or dupatta tucked on the waist is draped across from under one arm and over the other shoulder.
Source of Image: https://imagesonline.bl.uk/asset/19416/
- In the late 18th century, William and Thomas Daniell made some beautiful paintings of places and monuments in India. In one of the paintings made of a temple in south India, they depict two women worshippers. Here I have enlarged that portion of the painting to provide a clear view of the clothes of the women.
Source of Image: Daniell’s India: Views from the Eighteenth Century (New Delhi: Niyogi Books, 2013), p. 191. This is a republication of their work by the National Archives of India and Niyogi Books.
- Illustration dated 1800
Another illustration of a dancing girl with two women onlookers. The three are wearing modern styled blouses. All three have draped the saree in different ways. The one dancing is wearing it the Madisar style. The one in right foreground is wearing the saree in the Madisar drape but with a trousers underneath. Behind her, the third one is wearing it the Nivi style. This is clear as seen with the tucking of the loose end in front and by bringing the palla/pallu (the free end) from under the right arm. All three have the ulta palla or the Nivi style.
Source of Image: https://imagesonline.bl.uk/asset/19842
- Illustration dated 1810-11
The woman in this illustration has draped her saree like the Madisar style but has taken the palla over her head and left it hanging loose. The blouse is again a fitted garment just like our modern style of blouse.
Source of Image: https://imagesonline.bl.uk/asset/32757
- Illustration dated 1810-11
These women are wearing blouses that are no different from modern blouses. They are fitted to form around the chest and have fitted short sleeves. The unique feature being the ties at the back for the one with her back facing the viewer. So, the women could choose different styles when it came to blouses.
Source of Image: https://imagesonline.bl.uk/asset/32759
- Illustration dated 1800. This is of a Hindu drama being staged and all the female artists are wearing fitted blouses. the one in blue saree has draped the saree in the Nivi style and taken the free end of the saree over her head and left the rest hanging free. The one in purple has left the palla hanging free at the back. Though the bottom garment looks more like a ghagra than a saree. The woman in the background wearing a pink outfit seems to be wearing a ghagra with a dupatta which is draped in the Nivi style.
Source of Image: https://imagesonline.bl.uk/asset/16455
- Illustration 1800
This illustration makes it clear that wearing a blouse was not a norm. It was the woman’s choice to wear or not to wear one. But the style of the blouse worn was very much like the ones worn in modern times.
Source of Image: “Gentoo Women,” Charles Gold, Oriental Drawings, (G. W. Nicoll, 1806), unpaginated, https://books.google.co.in/books?id=ytwZ4h-qYrEC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Now let’s look at some descriptions of the clothes worn by Hindu men and women by travellers from the west before 1850. Alberuni’s account has already been mentioned above. Duarte Barbosa, a Portuguese who travelled to India in 1501 to become a writer in the Portuguese settlements, wrote the following:
“The women of these Heathens are beautiful and slender, with well-shaped figures; they are both fair and dark. Their dress is as long as that of their husbands, they wear silken bodices with tight sleeves, cut low at the back, and other long garments called chandes which they throw over themselves like cloaks when they go out.”[11]
Chandes seems to be the chaddar or dupatta. The silken bodice is nothing but a tight-fitting short tunic which had fitted sleeves. The mention of the back neckline being low gives the impression that women were free to wear the style they wanted.
A description of the dress worn by women in Negapatam (now Negapattinam) in the late 1600s.
“The apparel of the Negapatam Women is very strange; for those that are of any Quality wear a fine shift, through which the upper part of their body is seen, then a Cloth wrapp’d about them six times, covers them from the middle downwards; their Elbows are adorn’d with Golden Armlets two Fingers broad.”[12] The shift is a long tunic and the writer defines women with a tunic as being of “quality” – the use of “”any” before “Quality” could mean either social status or appearances, or both. Interestingly, the diaphanous nature of the fabric used for the shift worn by the women of Negapatam in the seventeenth century conforms with those worn by women depicted on the manuscript of Kalpa Sutra some centuries before.
In late 17th century (circa 1695), Dr John Francis Gemelli Careri provided the following description of the attire of women in India.
The women have no other garment but a long piece of stuff, wherewith they cover all their body, except their legs and part of their belly. Some add a little sort of smock with half sleeves; adorning their bare arms with bracelets, and strings of glass and latton; their ears with large silver pendents, and their ankles with rings of the same metal.[13]
The smock is again a blouse, and it had short sleeves. Here again it is mentioned that only some women wore the blouse.
William Ramsey, an American missionary, who visited India along with his colleague Reverend Read in the 1830s aiming to convert the “heathen Hindus” to Christianity, describes a ceremony being carried out at a temple. In his account he mentions the dress worn by a Hindu woman while describing her disparagingly.
The person who officiated on this occasion was a priestess, old and dirty, with a wild look and dishevelled hair. She was assisted by a man (who was) the counterpart of herself. Her dress was the usual Hindoo dress of the women, viz: a cholee and loogurda.[14]
The description of cholee and loogurda given in the footnote was “The Cholee is the body dress of the women, a kind of spencer, the sleeves only reaching to the elbows. The loogurda is a cloth of six or eight yards long and yard wide, which is wrapped around the middle, and answer the purpose of a petticoat.” [15]
In 1810s, James Forbes wrote the following:
“No women can be more attentive to cleanliness than the Hindoos: they take every method to render their persons delicate, soft, and attractive: their dress is peculiarly becoming; consisting of a long piece of silk, or cotton, tied round the waist, and hanging in a graceful manner to the feet, it is afterwards brought over the body in negligent folds; under this they cover the bosom with a short waistcoat of satin, but wear no linen.”[16]
The waistcoat is nothing but a choli or the blouse.
Conclusion
It is surprising that scholars have missed or ignored numerous instances, both in murals and illustrations, where the Hindu women have been depicted in different types of blouses – the most glaring being the murals in Brihadeeswara Temple and Ajanta Caves. The silhouette of the blouse has remained a fitted garment since the time of the construction of Ajanta Caves. By the time Brihadeswara Temple was completed, the silhouette of the blouse evolved, only by a small degree, to look exactly like the blouses worn by women in modern times. Similarly, the drape of the saree, the fabric going around the waist down and then pleated in the front centre and the remaining length, what we call the “pallu or palla,” going over the left shoulder, the draping style which in common parlance is called “ulta pallu/palla or Nivi style, is how Goddess Parvati is shown wearing the saree along with a modern style blouse (See Illustration above). Likewise, Riddhi and Siddhi, Ganesha’s consorts, have been depicted with a similar draping style (See illustration above). Not surprising is the fact that Nivi style is also the south Indian style of draping which is clearly shown in the murals
This raises even more questions than answers. How did the blouse style evolve? What were its preceding styles? The blouse as a garment was very much part of the attire of women across the subcontinent since several millennia though it was not a ubiquitous garment before the arrival of Muslim rulers. Several European travellers across centuries mention Indian women going bare-chested or just using the end of the pallu to cover their breasts. Even today aged women in some rural areas, though in extremely small numbers, are found without a blouse but with the saree pallu as a cover.
(Faces blurred for privacy) Image copyright with nuggetsofindianhistory.com
Two women without blouses with the saree draped in the Brahmika style- the pallu is brought to the front from over the right shoulder and brought down to cover the breasts and then the free end is tucked along the waist. This photograph was taken by me during a trip to Mukhalingam in Andhra Pradesh in 2018. 
(Faces blurred for privacy) Image copyright with nuggetsofindianhistory.com
This second photograph was taken when driving through the marketplace of a town while driving to Mukhalingam from Vishakhapatnam in 2018. What caught my eye was the pride and confidence with which she carried herself, and that the men were nonchalant about women moving around without blouses. The saree is one of the most versatile of garments in the history of clothing. It gives women the freedom of several styles of draping, probably influenced by the tasks they were involved in, as can be seen in the illustrations. The saree also was a perfect garment for a largely hot and humid climate of the region. It provided flexibility in terms of coverage to the wearer.
It is disappointing to see several institutions, like the Virtual Museum of Images and Sounds (VMIS), an institution supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of India, publishing articles about the blouse with exactly the fallacies discussed above without any attempt to delve deeper into the history of the garment. One can read their article here- https://aims.vmis.in/exhibition/a-garment-of-history-the-blouse-and-its-evolution-in-india/
Illustration 10 given above has been used in the above article but instead of classifying the blouse worn by the woman in the picture as what it is, the author of the article writes that it is “like an interpretation of a blouse.” Further the author calls the use of “petticoat and blouse” as foreign ideas. The words are definitely foreign to India, but the ideas are not.
The petticoat as an undergarment for a saree could have evolved from the Ghagra or Pavadai.[17] Some British authors of the early 19th century use the word petticoat to identify the “Ghagra or Lahangga” [18] worn by Hindu women. In fact, Montgomery Martin in his account dated 1837 goes on to say that the women use a veil over the Ghagra or Lehenga which is of the same “dimensions and materials” as of the “wrapper (Sari), which is their proper dress, is called by the same name.”[19] Check the upper garment worn by the woman in the illustration of 1837 below.
Common Summer Dress of Hindus of High Rank
Source of Image: Frontispiece, Montgomery Martin, The History, Antiquities, Topography, and Statistics of Eastern India; Comprising the Districts of Behar, Shahabad, Bhagulpoor, Goruckpoor, Dinajepoor, Puraniya, Ronggopoor, and Assam, Vol III (London: W.H. Allen and Co., 1837).
Also, in the VIMS article, which was published in the year 2020, Jnanadanandini Tagore is given credit for introducing the Nivi drape. The word “Nivi,” as per the author, is from the Bengali word “Navin” which means new. The Nivi style of draping was already prevalent, as shown in the illustrations above, during the construction of the Brihadeeswara Temple in the 11th Century CE. Further, the AI based information aggregation in Google search engine, gives credit to Jnanadanandani Tagore for the introduction of the Brahmika style of draping the saree as well.
This oft repeated misplaced credit denies the blouse – a garment worn by choice by Indian women since the time of the Ajanta Caves, if not before – its rightful place in the history of clothing of the Indian subcontinent. And not to mention that a lady of the elite Tagore family is declared the pioneer of the blouse when the subaltern women have been donning it by choice since at least a century before Jnanadanandini.
Some more illustrations from before 1850.
Source of Image: Frontispiece, Hobart Caunter, The Oriental Annual, or Scenes in India (London: Edward Bull, 1834).
Made by William Daniell, this illustration shows an Indian woman going about her daily chores, like carrying water pots on her head, wearing the saree draped around her waist only without taking the free end across her upper torso where she is wearing a nicely fitted blouse. What kind of blouse is it? Is it in any way distinguishable from the modern-day blouse?
Travelling basket-makers. Illustration dated 1800-1801.
Source of Image: https://imagesonline.bl.uk/asset/16525
Dance troupe: Hindu dancing girls with four musicians. Dated 1822.
Source of Image: https://imagesonline.bl.uk/asset/10503
[1] https://www.thevoiceoffashion.com/intersections/columns/jnanadanandini-devis-newage-sari-drapes-3805
[2] https://tilfi.com/blogs/perspective/story-of-the-nivi-drape?srsltid=AfmBOopwllqyLzo3itnxPepsyKsdVcn-DAPqySiBlz844U2ivV5eCG_g; https://www.thevoiceoffashion.com/intersections/columns/jnanadanandini-devis-newage-sari-drapes-3805
[3] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/saree-has-a-tagore-touch/articleshow/8202627.cms?from=mdr
[4] https://www.theweek.in/theweek/leisure/2021/09/02/jasvinder-kaur-chronicles-the-impact-of-the-british-raj-on-the-clothes-of-punjab.html
[5] https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20210818-how-the-sari-is-being-reinvented-for-the-21st-century
[6] https://www.tilfi.com/blogs/perspective/story-of-the-nivi-drape
[7] https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/242/
[8] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ajanta_dancing_girl_now_and_then.jpg
[9] Alberuni’s India, pp 168-169, Rupa and Co or Archives book pages 180-181
[10] See https://in.pinterest.com/pin/800937114974027745/
[11] Mansel Longworth Dames, trans., Introduction, The Book of Duarte Barbosa. An Account of the Countries Bordering on the Indian Ocean and their Inhabitants, Written by Duarte Barbosa and Completed about the year 1518 A.D. Vol I, London: Hakluyt Society, 1917), 114, accessed 20 May 2025, National Library of Portugal Digital Collections.
[12] John Ogilby, trans., Atlas Japannensis: Being Remarkable Addresses by way of Embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces to the Emperor of Japan…. Collected out of the Several Writings and Journals by Arnoldus Montanus (London: Thomas Johnson, 1670), 485.
[13] John Francis Gemelli Careri, A Voyage Around the World, Book 1 Chapter 1, Part III, (1700), p. 199.
[14] William Ramsey, Journal of a Missionary Tour in India; performed by Rev. Messrs Read and Ramsey, missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for foreign mission (Philadelphia: J. Whetham, 1836), 318.
[15] Ibid.
[16] James Forbes, Oriental Memoirs: selected and abridged from a series of familiar letters written during seventeen years residency in India: including observations on parts of Africa and South America, and a narrative of occurrences in four India voyages, Vol 1 (London: White, Cochrane, and Co., 1813), 74.
[17] Pavadai is the long skirt worn in south India as part of the half-saree.
[18] Montgomery Martin, The History, Antiquities, Topography, and Statistics of Eastern India; Comprising the Districts of Behar, Shahabad, Bhagulpoor, Goruckpoor, Dinajepoor, Puraniya, Ronggopoor, and Assam, Vol III (London: W.H. Allen and Co., 1837), 106.
[19] Ibid.
