Description: A Brief History of the saree blouse and Indian fashion before 1960 with an occasional excursion after. All images are credited but if they are here by accident please do let me know and I will take it down. All posts also on vintageindianclothing.tumblr.com
In a country as varied as India, autumn arrives in different ways. Way up north you can see fall colours while down South the autumn sees rains . Nevertheless for most of India, the autumn comes after the monsoon and a time of being constricted and confined by the rain is replaced by clear skies and an abundance of life, reflected in the country’s many festivals in October/November.
Given urban life as well as the many influences and images that are now readily accessible, autumn may well evoke both our festivals with their Indianised marigold flowers as well as the American fall, Halloween and the like, even if the latter is confined to the urban, upper classes.
But to really understand the Indian autumn (sharad ritu), you have to go back to the works of pre-Industrial India which evoke the landscape and people, often through poetry. Vishakhadatta for example evokes the skies that follow the rainy season.