Like most cultures little is recorded formally about the lives of the women.
I was lucky enough in Kochi to visit a palace that had a substantial display on the women of Kerala State. Kerala is the only Indian state to have been ruled by a maternal line of royalty. So the ruling son got the job through his mother. The next king would be the son of his mother's eldest daughter. The mother of the king was often also the treasurer of the kingdom - putting her in a very powerful position in allocating 'government' spending.
It was only when the maternal line ran out they were forced to have mass adoptions from other areas and during these times the politics were unstable. The British took advantage of one of these periods to conquer the state. However, Kerala was also the first state to volunteer to join the Indian Union at Independence. And as I have said before Kerala has the best living conditions in India - a product of their heritage? The question must be asked...
One of the thing that happened when the British were trying to unstabilise the area was they encouraged the men to be rebellious about having the matriarchal line. With the British behind them, the locals changed the power base under the British to be through the men and it has remained since early 1900's.
The display had lots of early photos and the first thing that caught my eye was the women were wearing sarong style clothes - without any shoulder covering. On closer inspection we realised the more powerful women were bare chested in the photos. It seems until the mid 1800's all women wore dhotis (Indian sarongs worn at the waist) and only for ceremonies did they add a second piece of fabric to cover their breasts (just held losely under their arms). Thus the photos until around 1920's often had bare chested women. And the fashion style once the upper garment became common was a loose blouse without any scarf or head cover. It wasn't till the 1970's the women started to wear the sari in the north Indian fashion. I wonder of the advent of cinema and Bollywood was a driver of this change?
I was lucky enough in Kochi to visit a palace that had a substantial display on the women of Kerala State. Kerala is the only Indian state to have been ruled by a maternal line of royalty. So the ruling son got the job through his mother. The next king would be the son of his mother's eldest daughter. The mother of the king was often also the treasurer of the kingdom - putting her in a very powerful position in allocating 'government' spending.
It was only when the maternal line ran out they were forced to have mass adoptions from other areas and during these times the politics were unstable. The British took advantage of one of these periods to conquer the state. However, Kerala was also the first state to volunteer to join the Indian Union at Independence. And as I have said before Kerala has the best living conditions in India - a product of their heritage? The question must be asked...
One of the thing that happened when the British were trying to unstabilise the area was they encouraged the men to be rebellious about having the matriarchal line. With the British behind them, the locals changed the power base under the British to be through the men and it has remained since early 1900's.
The display had lots of early photos and the first thing that caught my eye was the women were wearing sarong style clothes - without any shoulder covering. On closer inspection we realised the more powerful women were bare chested in the photos. It seems until the mid 1800's all women wore dhotis (Indian sarongs worn at the waist) and only for ceremonies did they add a second piece of fabric to cover their breasts (just held losely under their arms). Thus the photos until around 1920's often had bare chested women. And the fashion style once the upper garment became common was a loose blouse without any scarf or head cover. It wasn't till the 1970's the women started to wear the sari in the north Indian fashion. I wonder of the advent of cinema and Bollywood was a driver of this change?
No comments:
Post a Comment