Most of the IIindu women of the present day appear in public, and at their nutnerons religious festivals opportunities for seeing their holiday clothing are numerous. On such occasions tho wealth of the mercantile classes admits of much display. In Bombay, a brilliant and picturesque array of women drifts along the streets and way& The large and almost bovine Banyan and Bhattia women roll heavily along, each plump foot and ankle loaded with several pounds' weight of silver. The slender, gold-tinted Purbliu women, with their hair tightly twisted, and a eoronal of inogra flowers, have a shrinking grace and delicacy that is very attractive • and, barring the red Kashmir chadar, their costiime is precisely that in which an artist would dress Sakuntala and her play fellows. The Marwari females. with skirts full of plaits, tinkling with hawk-bells, their eyes set in deep black paint, find the sari dragged over the brow so as to hang in front, are very curious figures, seldom pretty. Stirati girls, with their drapery so tightly kilted as to show great sweeps of the round, brown limbs, smooth and shapely, that characterize those Venuses of the stable and kitchen, stride merrily along, frequently with a child on their rounded hips. There is a quaint expression of good-humour on their features, which have a comely ugliness unlike that of any other race. Then the trim little Malwen girls, who are already growing fairer and lighter in colour from their confinement in the cotton fac tories, sling quickly along with a saucy swing of their oscillant hips; and the longer-robed Ghati, scarcely to be distinguished from women of the Marathi caste, go more demurely. The Brahman woman is best seen at Poona, Wye, and at Nasik. In Bombay she is scarcely distinguishable from Sonar, Sontar, and others. Those odd, gipsy-like wenches, the Wagri beggar women, each provided with a plump baby, carried in a tiny hammock slung on a stick, and handed to the spectator as if it were something to buy or to taste, are to be seen in numbers, sometimes twanging on a one stringed sitar, but more often playing the toin-tom on their plump forms, with that frank simplicity of pantomime which is the supretne effort of Hindu eloquence, and the art of suiting the action to tho word. Gosains, with their little stalls of shells, brass spoons, bells and images. Everybody very happy, and all differently clad.
In the present day, before a Hindu puts on a new garment, he plucks a few threads out of it and offers them to different deities, and smears a corner with turmeric to avert the evil eye. The Cloth of a married Hindu woman has always a border of blue or red, or other colour. The clres.s of Hindu widow is white.
Arab (men's) dress has remained almost the same during the lapse of centuries. Over the shirt, in winter or in cool weather, most persons wear a sudeyre, a short vest of cloth without sleeves; kaftan or kuftan of striped silk, of cotton or silk, descending to the arikles, with long sleeves ex tending a few inches beyond the finger-ends, but divided from a point a little above the wrist or about the midde of the forearm. The ordinary outer robe is a long cloth coat of any colour, called by the Egyptians gibbch, but by the Turks jubbeh, the sleeves of which reach not quite to the wrist.
Some persons also wear a bencesh or hellish robe of cloth, with long sleeves, like those of the kuftan, but more atnple. It is properly a robe of ceremony, and should be worn over the other cloth coat, bnt many persons wear it instead of the gihbeh. The Farageeyeh robe nearly reseinbles the beneesh ; it has very long sleeves, but these are not slit, and it is chiefly worn by men of the learned professions. In cold weather, a kind of black woollen cloak, called abayeh, is commonly worn. Sometimes this is drawn over the head. The abayeh is often of the brown and white striped kind.
In British India the ordinary articles of clothing of Hindu and Mahomedan women comprise the bodice, called choli, angia, kachuri, koortee, and kupissa ; the petticoat, called lahunga, luhinga, ghagra, and peshgir; and the sari, or wrapping loin-cloth.
Men's clothing consists of— Loin-cloth, dhoti or loongi ; Trousers, called paijama, izar, turwar, gurgi, and shalwar ; Jacket, coat, and vest, called anga, angarka, chapkan, dagla, jora, koorta, kuba, kufcha, mina, inirzai, jama, labada ; Skull-cap, topi, taj ; Head-dress, pagri, turban (sir-band), shuinla or shawl turban, rumal or kerchief, dastar; Kalurband or waist-belt, sash.
The women of Burma wear a neat cloth bodice. and, as an under garment, a cloth wrapped tightly round from the waist downwards • but so narrow that it opens at every step, and all the inner left thigh is seen.
Fabrics used for the clothing. of the masses of the people of India are plain and striped dooria, mulmul, aghabani, and other figured fabrics have established themselves ; the finest qualities of muslins must necessarily be confined to very rich purchasers.
Long cloths or panjams of various qualities were formerly manufactured to a great extent in the .Northern Circars, as well as in other parts ; the great proportion consisted of 14 panjam or cloths containing fourteen times 12 threads in the breadth, which varied according to local custom from 38 to 44 inches. 14 lbs. was considered the proper weight of such cloths, the length 36 cubits, half - lengths being exported under the denomination of salampores. The manufacture of the finer cloths, which went up to and even exceeded 50 panjam, has long been discontinued.
Other articles of dress of women of Bombay are the bungur - kuddee, chikhee, choli or khun, choonee or head-cloth, doorungu-pytanee, guj (covering for breast), guzzee or long robe, izarband, kempchunder (widows), kurch-chunderkulee, pesh gir, paijama, saris of kinds, silaree.
In Cutch, the khombee, sadlo, for women ; for men, pairahan, paijama, izarband.
Other articles of dress of the nien of Bombay,— angarka, chaga, dhoti, izarband, koortah, labada (in Baluchistan), pairahan paijama, turban, ujruk or coloured sheet (in Sind).
Men's Cloths are manufactured all over British India, and those of the Madura district have lace borders ; they a.re sold as high as 70 rupees for a suit of two pieces. Conjeveram is noted for its silk-bordered cloths, which are sold for not more than 15 rupees a pair.