by FALGUNI A. SHETH
There was a highly specified code of respect and avoidance behavior enforced by the state. Caste status was marked by fixed distances to which a low-caste person could approach a Brahman: the Nadars were supposed to remain thirty-six paces from the person of a Nambudri Brahman. They were also prohibited from carrying umbrellas and wearing shoes or golden ornaments. Their houses had to be only one story high, and they could not milk cows. Nadar women could not carry pots on their hips nor could they cover the upper part of their bodies. Nair women were allowed to wear a light scarf around their shoulders, which at times would be draped over their breasts. However, they were expected to be bare-breasted in the presence of brahmans and other high-status people as a sign of respect. In addition, all castes below the rank of Nair could wear only a single cloth of rough texture, which was worn by both men and women and which could come no lower than the knee nor higher than the waist.”[16]
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The current version of the sari has been familiar in Western (mostly British) contexts for at least 200 years. Prior to that, women wore the sari without the petticoat and the blouse which, depending upon how it was worn (around the waist alone) might have left their breasts uncovered, their waists exposed, and a semi-opaque cover over their hips, as we can see in another 19th century painting by Varma, of two figures, Shantanu and Matsyasughandi, from an Indian myth.[22] Still another of Varma’s paintings, Here Comes Papa, shows a different version of the sari, worn without blouse or petticoat.[23] Since then, it has seen a series of changes that have rendered it more suitable to the “Western” gaze. In its present form—a 5.5 meter by 1 meter length of cloth worn over a long petticoat and blouse–the sari was modified under British rule to help increase the “modesty,” and by correlation, to “reduce” the sexual promiscuity of the women who wore saris by fashioning various auxiliary garments that would help conceal, veil, and shroud the bodies of these women. Today, despite the voluminous amount of material and the complexity of affixing it to the body, the sari is now seen as sexy, primarily because of its exposure of the waist and the upper back, and the subtle enhancement of the breasts through the cut of the matching blouse often worn with it. Moreover, although it has been questioned for its suitability in twentieth century professional contexts, as diasporic South Asian women have entered various internationalized and professional markets, it has rarely seen the kind of censorship that the hijab has.
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