Here are other plus points. One, in the way it transforms the saree, the women, and celebrates the weaver.

Two, it doesn't reveal (remember cliches such as 'heightens the sensuality'-bit for a saree marketed in film, media and entertainment) what's to be gracefully covered (as the body undergoes changes).

Three, it is handy, comfy, handsfree, easy on movement, and hence easy on work during festivals, weddings, rituals etc. The seedha palla is simply great for moving around pooja thhals, oil lamps, prasad, food, utensils, or even lifting up kids and running after them, even while the head is covered in the seedha pallu (in the presence of certain elders). It is great for working on the agricultural fields, in the kitchen, at desks, in Parliament.

Four, the hanging curve of the saree at the back before the palla comes to your right shoulder -- beautiful -- doesn't reveal what's not to be revealed.

I watched videos and visuals (for this article) of Rajput women from Gujarat who performed the talwar raas wearing the aanchal/chunari draped over the right shoulder. It made me wonder what perhaps would have been the role of this style of the palla for the woman Dharma preservers of different communities, in the past.

-- Sumati Mehrishi

There is a striking and beautiful picture doing the rounds, a picture of a group of beautiful women of India wearing a selection of the most stunning textiles and designs of India , spectacular sarees all.

That they happen to be the movers and shakers, decision-makers, part of the highest decision making body in our democracy, the Union Cabinet of Ministers, is a crowning glory.

There is so much that can be said about this picture and the sarees, the textiles , the designs, the motifs, colours , the deep history of each weft and warp; there was a Gadhwal from Andhra Pradesh, a Banarasi from Uttar Pradesh, a Kanchipuram from Tamil Nadu, Tussar from Assam among others. Each has a unique story of its own but that’s not what we will talk about today.

Here we will talk about the aanchal or pallu, the drape of that part of the saree which shows off the intricate designing and weaving of the border and the end portion.

A bit of background. Draping a piece of unstitched cloth around the lower half of the body, one across the upper half and one tightly bound across the waist , the antariya, the uttariya and the kayabandh has been the fountainhead of Indic design and clothing, for both men and women, the source code from which all else is derived. That is a story in itself written about by this author many a time.

Drapery is and has always been the key to the clothes we wear. With the passage of time, the antariya has become the modern saree ensemble’s petticoat , the uttariya itself has morphed into the draped saree proper and the kayabandh has receded into the background remaining only for decorative purposes around the waist. Stitched cloth , which was a result of outside influence has its representative as the blouse or choli.

In the 20^th century, the numberless ways of draping sarees across India and the Indian subcontinent were heavily influenced by the film industry, especially the increasingly popular and influential Hindi Films. Which brings me back to the picture I opened with; from the 1960s, it slowly became clear that the seedha palla where the beautiful aanchal was displayed over the shoulders and chest was elected as the symbol of backwardness, regressive attitudes and lack of fashion sense. The Lalita Pawars or stick in the mud mother-in-laws of the films wore seedha pallu and terrorised their daughters and bahus. The trendy Sharmila Tagores and Saira Banus wore their pallus short over their left shoulders, with form fitting blouses and tightly draped sarees. The trend stuck and the seedha pallu, pleated or just thrown over the shoulder has become the symbol of the “modern”, shoving every other drape and style to the background.

Contrary to general opinion, seedha palla is not confined to Gujarat but popular across India. UP, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, you name it and you will find it there. I come from Bihar and Jharkhand. When I was growing up in the 80s, seedha palla was de rigueur in Bihar especially for puja, parab-tyohaar, baraat-shaadi and any other special occasions. It is still worn by my mother's generation, though it started being seen more as a backward and "ganwaar" day-to-day dress from the 1990s. It is back in fashion, now, although not in Bihar/Jharkhand where the saree itself is losing ground exponentially. Even today, however, vivaah is with the bride and her mother in a seedha palla saree.

I never met my great- grand-mother, the matriarch of a large brood of children, grand-children and great-grandchildren. Widowed at a young age she ran the family lands, kheti-baari, as we call it, with an iron hand. My childhood memories however, are dominated by a large framed photograph of a stern woman in a white saree, with the pallu drawn seedha down her right shoulder, which my grand father kept in pride of place in the public room of the large house. She would have decimated anyone with foolish ideas about drapery with one glance. And she would have been proud of Darshana Jardosh.

-- Sumedha Verma Ojha

Sumati Mehrishi and Sumedha Verma Ojha

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