[Advaita-l] Traditional Dresses

[V Subrahmanian]

On Wed, Feb 27, 2013 at 10:52 PM, Abhinand Abhinand <abhinand06 at yahoo.com>wrote:

> Namaste,
> I am a new entrant to this energetic group. It has been a great joy
> reading the posts in this list over years.
> Indeed there is enough to learn about our dharma in this platform too.
> Thanks for all the discussions & debates.
>
> I shall start with my first post.
>
>
> As we all know that most brahmins (post marriage) have their specific
> dress codes as prescribed by scriptures viz Kacche Panche & Kacche Sarees.
>
> I have a small doubt regarding this:
>
> Tamil Iyer ladies wear the classical Madisaar (9 yards)
> Telugu Smartha ladies too wear 9 yards
> Kannada Madhva ladies also wear 9 yards
> How come the tradition of 9 yards is lost among Kannada Smartha Brahmins,
> viz Badaganadu, Hoysala Karnataka etc.
>

The Kannada smartha people too have this eight or nine yards saree.  It is
either mElu kacche like the Madhwas (actually the Madhwas have followed it
from the Maharashtra women, where one can see even today, even non-brahmin
orthodox women wear it that way, and even coolie women wear it that way, as
I have myself seen in Mumbai and when non-brahmin Maharashtrians come to
Sringeri) or 'oLa kacche' where the kacche is invisible, having been
covered up by outer layers of the sari which is worn just like the six
yards type.  And there are ways of making a kacche type draping over the
front too by orthodox women of smartha groups where of course the kacche is
inside too.

In Dharwad regions smartha women too wear the sari like Madhwas.

Also, even the six yards sari can be worn as madisar by Iyengar people and
as kacche by Madhwa women.

Even today smartha orthodox women regurlarly wear the kacche either outside
or inside types.  And many do it on special occasions like shraaddha or
where maDi cooking etc. is required.

Chitpavan smarthas wear like Madhwas, as they too originated from
maharashtra.

This is based on my observation being in Bangalore.

regards
subrahmanian.v


>
> I would request all the learned members to reply & throw some light, I
> would also appreciate if there are any orthodox smartha (kannada) families
> following the tradition of 9 yards today.
>
> Thanks
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