Traditional Clothing
Literary evidence shows that in ancient and mediaeval times, the Kashmiri Pandit men traditionally wore a lower garment,
an upper garment, and a turban.
Kashmiri art also indicated that the men wore a long tunic, and trousers (probably due to Kushan influence).
According to Hieun Tsang, they even wore leather doublets and clothes made of white linen.
In winter, they kept warm with a cloak, which the Nilamata Purana calls the Pravarana.
The rich draped themselves in fine woollen shawls, while the rest wore cheaper woollen articles like the coarse sthulkambala.
There were various turbans also being used, like the ushneek or shirahshata was common.
It can also be noted that the women in Kashmir used to mainly dress in sarees, blouses and tailored jackets.
They too, wore long flowy tunics and trousers.
Both men and women braided their hair in different styles, sometimes with colourful tassels.
Men and women were both very fond of adorning themselves in different kinds of jewellery,
like rings, gold necklaces, armlets, wristlets, amulets, etc.
The women also wore pendants on their foreheads, and golden strings at the end of locks.
However, their clothing style underwent a huge change after the advent of Islam in Kashmir - a reference to
the first part of their exodus. The type of music they performed too, changed with the
influence of Islam in their lives.
Today, they wear:
i) Pheran :
The long flowy dress called the pheran-pravarna of the Nilamata Purana is traditionally worn by both men and women.
The dress is always worn with an underlayer called the potsh, white in colour, and generally made of cotton.
The pheran of women has wide sleeves, usually overturned and saturated with brocade work or embroidery.
Long stripes with red borders are attached throughout the chest.
A coloured sash is usually tied around the waist, too.
The salwar kameez and the pothohari salwar that Punjabi women traditionally wear, also bear resemblance with the
Kashmiri Pandits women's traditional dresses (Pheran), with one notable exception being that the salwars that Punjabi
women traditionally wear are more form fitting in shape.
As for men, the garment is usually plain with narrow sleeves with a left hand side open collar,
with a lapel or lace emerging from it.
(image credits : https://www.quora.com/Were-Kashmiri-Pandit-women-pressurized-to-wear-veil-hijab-after-Islam-came-to-the-valley)
ii) Taranga:
The Taranga is headgear worn by the women, which people describe to be “a racial fusion of the Aryans and Nagas” in the
Nilamata Purana. It symbolises the Nagas with the decorative hood and a flowing serpentine body
that tapers into a double tail that flows almost all the way down to the heels of the wearer, thus resembling
the celestial serpent.
It consists of the kalaposh (a conic, silken cap with Pashmina bands), the zoojy
(a network of delicate, embroidered cloth, worn over the kalaposh, that tapers down the back of an individual),
the taranga (comprising of three wraps around the head and finally glazed over a crystal or agate),
and the poots (two long pieces of fine muslin hemmed together with a pattern resembling a fish spine;
rolled and wrapped to look like a pair of snakes, over the back of the wearer.)
iii) Turbans:
The turban is the traditional headgear of Kashmiri Pandit men.
The priest class among the Pandits almost wear their turbans in the Namdari Sikh style.
Turbans are also prevalent, and can be seen in several other communities like the Punjabi diaspora (across the world
- whether in India, Pakistan or the UK).
Influences of the Punjabis' turban draping style can be seen in that of the Kashmiri Pandits'.
The Parsi community, too, wear turbans, or pagadis.
Photograph of kashmiri pandits taken at Kampasi’s ancestral house in Srinagar, Kashmir (1895) -
image from https://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/photocoll/p/largeimage61402.html
Hiuen Tsang and several other notable accounts in history have described Kashmiri Pandits' traditional style and jewellery to be a culmination of that of several other regions', like Afghan, Pashtun and Persian. This really gets one thinking about the origin of clothing, and how something as on-the-surface as clothing has centuries of history leading to its origin. One single article alone will speak about years and years of culture and history.
By Srishti
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Bibliography:
https://koausa.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Unmesh.pdf
http://ikashmir.net/culture/costume.html
https://books.google.co.in/books?id=iuURFTHTU0EC&pg=PT156&lpg=PT156&dq=sthulkambala&source=bl&ots=OSefXX87YH&sig=ACfU3U001lhuKAQr4H5TNPGgkF5IuoVN8g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi7qrLawpb7AhVx-zgGHQ12CjEQ6AF6BAgbEAM#v=onepage&q=sthulkambala&f=false
https://amoghavarsham22ug.wixsite.com/punjabidiasporainuk/post/who-are-punjabis
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