While guest posting for southasia.art, I came across this 1945 advertisement. Indian representations and thought on skin colour always intrigue me and I found this juxtaposition - the recognition of an old idea of allure (Ajanta) and its dissonance with the almost post colonial “fair” beauty - interesting.
Princess learning archery, Gopal Charan Kanungo.
Click for larger image to see ladies with bow and arrows/spears:)
From the CWDS calendar, Costumes of an Age. The models are Anjolie Ela Menon in an Odisha ikat saree (1958) and Oonita in the nauvari style (1961).
I found it interesting that it looks contemporary - especially pic 2 which echoes the looser drape that we often see now in fashion spreads for handlooms.
A little bit on the calendar here.
Were Kanan Devi still alive, she would probably recall her “little problem” and also be aghast that it still persists.
From Kanan’s autobiography “My Homage to All”.
Of course it is impossible in cold countries to display the beauty of ornaments, which have to be worn on the bare body, for if they did so they would suffer severely from cold. So the fondness for ornaments is transferred to, and is satisfied by, the niceties of dress. As in India the fashions in ornaments change very often, so in the West the fashions in dress change every moment. Civilisation and Dress, Swami Vivekananda: Complete Works.
Vivekananda’s perspective on the Indian use of jewellery and how it has multiple meanings regarding style, status and the like.
Today is Yuva Diwas/National Youth Day.
The artwork is Palli Badhu (Village Bride) - described as
a watercolour on silk, in the wash
style that features a bride with embellishments against a lightly coloured sari -
by the Odia painter Bimbadhar Varma. Via IPCA.
Everything you think of has already existed. Especially in the 1930s.
Pic 1: The cold shoulder blouse, 1930s. Worn by Kamlesh Kumari. The sari with the large motif border is also very 1930s. Via Filmindia.
Pic 2: Contemporary blouse pattern.
Illustration by Mali for the story Magadh ke Mahlon Mein (In the Palaces of Magadh) by Bhagwat Sharan Upadhyay,1957). Featuring a double serpent bindi.
The blurb for the story informs us that no sooner had King Devbhuti embraced his queen Jhanavi he fell unconscious. Maybe a case of ophidophobia:)
ती म्हणाली एकटी मी
That I am alone, she said,
राहिले तर राहिले matters not a bit
या स्वरांचे सूर्य झाले, My song is the sun, and that,
यात सारे पावले gives me everything.
Today is Kusumagraj’s birth anniversary and Marathi Language Day.
Translation of Kusumagraj’s poem चार होत्या पक्षिणी त्या (there were 4 female birds) by Namita Waikar.
Artwork: An Indian Spotted Cuckoo, Shaykh Zain-al-din, 1781. The koel on a palash branch indicates spring.
Marathi Language Day today
The recurring motif of three women in Indian art. Today’s painting: Rashmirekha Panda’s Sweetest Day
One of the Company’s medical officers, Dr Henry H. Spry, is of opinion that this exercise of carrying small vessels of water on the head might be advantageously introduced in our boarding schools, and private families, and that it might entirely supersede the present machinery of dumb-bells, back-boards and skipping-ropes &c*. India, Pictorial, Descriptive and Historical, From the Earliest Times to the Present, Julia Corner (1854).
The costumes worn by the women include a) a dhoti like kaccha wrap in Bengal in 1836l, the Haryanvi costume a century later, a shorter Parsi style sari and a churidar kameez in early 20th century Mumbai.
*Got to wonder if the practice of walking with books on the head for deportment was a result of this :)
Girl on a tree @Santiniketan, circa 1939. Shambhu Shaha.
Speaking of the 50s, a tennis player from the decade.
There’ are a lot of gold edged and embroidered dupattas in Umrao Jaan given the theme but a lot of simpler ones, often of the striped leheriya sort.
The fusion saree of 1985.
Another variation on the short saree.
