History of Ancient Bharatvarsha

Clothing During The Mahabharatha/Ramayana Times in Ancient India

In a previous article, I had claimed that in Ancient India, toplessness was prevalent. Although men
and women would wear a lower garment, an upper garment was usually not worn. The exceptions
are for the wealthy and the royalty, and to find them wear an upper garment is also quite rare. This
post will be dedicated to provide references from both epics that support these claims. I will first
start off with clothing in Mahabharatha, and then move to Ramayana. All references will either be
from Mahabharatha, translated into English by Kisari Mohan Ganguly, or Valmiki Ramayana,
translated into English by Desiraju Hanumanta Rao.

Clothing in Mahabharatha

During Mahabharatha times, upper garments were worn sometimes by the royalty or the wealthy.
After Duryodhana wins the Pandavas and Draupadi, Karna orders the garments of the Pandavas and
Draupadi to be removed. Hearing this order, the Pandavas remove their upper garments and sit
down in the assembly (Sabha Parva Section LXVII):

Whatever wealth the Pandavas had--she herself and these Pandavas themselves,--have all been
justly won by the son of Suvala. O Dussasana, this Vikarna speaking words of (apparent) wisdom is
but a boy. Take off the robes of the Pandavas as also the attire of Draupadi. Hearing these words
the Pandavas, O Bharata, took of their upper garments and throwing them down sat in that
assembly.

This shows that royalty during Mahabharatha times would wear upper garments. The removal of the
upper garments of the Pandavas signified loss of royalty, and that is why Karna ordered the
Pandavas and Draupadi to remove these garments. Since the Pandavas and Draupadi were then
slaves, they had no right to wear upper garments and show that they were still royalty.

However, this is rare. In other words, most royalty described in the epic were shown to not wear an
upper garment. An excellent example of this would be Kunti. When her son Arjuna was performing
great feats in the rangbhoomi (prior to Karna's sudden arrival there), she was overjoyed, and tears of
happiness from her eyes fell from her face onto her breasts and mixed with her breast milk (Adi
Parva Section CXXXVII):

"On seeing Arjuna, the whole assembly were delighted and conchs began to be blown all around
with other musical instruments. And there arose a great uproar in consequence of the spectators'
exclaiming,--'This is the graceful son of Kunti!'--'This is the middle (third) Pandava!'--'This is the son
of the mighty Indra!'--'This is the protector of the Kurus'--'This is the foremost of those versed in
arms!'--'This is the foremost of all cherishers of virtue!'--'This is the foremost of the persons of
correct behaviour, the great repository of the knowledge of manners!' At those exclamations, the
tears of Kunti, mixing with the milk of her breast, wetted her bosom.
Since Kunti's tears could fall on her breast and mix with her breast milk, it becomes quite obvious
that there was no upper garment covering her breasts. The Rangbhoomi happened in the open, in
front of the masses in Hastinapura, suggesting that it was not common and not necessary for royalty
to cover their breasts even in front of the public (i.e. toplessness was the norm). The few instances
of royalty covering their breasts, were a rarity.

One can then raise the point that Kunti was a widow at the time of the quote I extracted above, and
hence did not need to cover her breasts. People can therefore reason that married women in royalty
had to cover their breasts, but widowed women in royalty did not have to. However, that is also
incorrect. After the 13th year of the Pandavas and Draupadi's exile in Matsya desh was over,
Draupadi was living as royalty. However, even then, it it described that she was not covering her
upper body. In one instance, Draupadi was trying to convince Krishna to not sue for peace when he
goes to Hastinapura as a peace messenger as she believed the Kurus did not deserve peace. At that
time, she remembers the insults she faced in the Kuru Sabha at Hastinapura and laments. It is then
that Vyasa describes her tears and falling on her breasts and wetting them. This would not be
possible if she had an upper garment covering these breasts, suggesting that Draupadi did not wear
upper garments even once she returned to living as royalty, after the 13 year exile period had
finished (Udyoga Parva Section LXXXII):

Uttering these words with voice choked in tears, the large-eyed Krishna began to weep aloud, with
convulsive sobs, and tears gushed down her cheeks. And that lady, with hips full and round, began
to drench her close and deep bosom by the tears she shed which were hot as liquid fire.

This suggests that even married women that were royalty did not have to wear, and usually did not
wear upper garments.

Now I will show a few instances where commoners did not wear upper garments. After the
Pandavas and Draupadi were sent to exile, Krishna soon came to meet them. It was there that
Draupadi remembered the insult done to her and began to weep. Her tears fell on her breast and
wet them, suggesting that she did not have an upper garment covering her breasts, at the time she
was a commoner living in exile (Vana Parva Section XII):

'Saying this the mild-speeched Krishna hid her face with her soft hands like the buds of lotus, and
began to weep. And the tears of Panchali begot of grief washed her deep, plump and graceful
breasts crowned with auspicious marks.

Also note that Vyasa describes Draupadi's breasts as having auspicious marks. How could he have
noted that they had these auspicious marks had he not seen her bare, naked breasts? This further
supports my claim that commoners during Mahabharatha time did not cover their upper body.

During the final year of exile, in Matsya desh, Kichaka (brother in law of king Virata) sees Draupadi
and gets mesmerized by her beauty. He describes her beauty in the following manner (Virata Parva
Section XIV):

Both thy bosoms, so beautiful and well-developed and endued with unrivalled gracefulness and
deep and well-rounded and without any space between them, are certainly worthy of being decked
with garlands of gold. Resembling in shape the beautiful buds of the lotus, these thy breast, O thou
of fair eye-brows, are even as the whips of Kama that are urging me forward, O thou of sweet smiles,
O damsel of slender waist, beholding that waist of thine marked with four wrinkles and measuring
but a span, and slightly stooping forward because of the weight of thy breasts, and also looking on
those graceful hips of thine broad as the banks of a river, the incurable fever of desire, O beauteous
lady, afflicteth me sore.

As you can see from the text above, Kichaka describes Draupadi's breasts as resembling the buds of
a lotus and not having any space between them. Such details would only be visible had he seen the
bare, naked breasts of Draupadi. Otherwise, how is a man able to tell if there is any space or not
between the breasts of a woman who is wearing a blouse that has her breasts covered?

So, from these references, I have shown that in Mahabharatha times, the commoners would not
cover their upper body. Upper body was only covered sometimes by the royalty and wealthy to
signify their status. But even this was quite rare. Now I will move on to clothing in Ramayana times.

Clothing in Ramayana

The clothing in Ramayana times was quite similar to that in Mahabharatha times (in terms of the
body parts that were covered). After all, there is only a 100 year gap between the two epics.

When Seetha is in her 14th year of exile, Ravana approaches her in the garb of a brahmin. He
describes Seetha in the following manner (Aranya Kanda Section 46):

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"Your hips are beamy, thighs burly akin to elephant's trunks, and these two breasts of yours that
are ornamented with best jewellery are rotund, rubbing and bumping each other, and they are
swinging up and up, their nipples are brawny and jutting out, and they are smoothish like palm-
fruits, thus they are covetable for they are beautiful. [3-46-19, 20]

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"Oh, allurer, your smile is alluring, teeth are alluring, and your eyes allure, oh, beauty, your waist
is palmful, your hair velvety, your breasts are jostling, and you rob my soul as a spate robs
riverbank. [3-46-21, 22a]

As you can see from Ravana's words above, he sees Seetha's breasts as rotund. He also notes them
as rubbing and bumping against one another and swinging up and up. Furthermore, he notes the
texture of Seetha's nipples. To describe those body parts in such detail, he must have had a good
look at them, which would only be possible if they were not covered up. How does one realize a
woman's breasts are rubbing against one another if they are covered up by a blouse? All in all, this
text suggests that the upper body of women in Ramayana time was not covered. The text also states
that Ravana describes Seetha's thighs as burly, suggesting that he would have also had a good look
at them. Since later sections that describe her kidnap show that she was wearing silk garments when
kidnapped, this description can be explained as follows. Seetha's lower body was covered with the
silk garment, but her upper body was not fully covered. When Ravana approached her, she tried to
seduce him by moving around in such a way that would attract him to her. For example, she moved
in such a way that her breasts swung up and up and attract Ravana to her. She also highlighted the
beauty of her hips, and waist to Ravana through her actions, and gave a big, heart-piercing smile to
Ravana. The smile was so big that here teeth were exposed, allowing Ravana to describe them. In
the attempt to seduce Ravana, she also moved the silk garment covering her thighs on the side,
allowing her bare, naked thighs to be exposed to Ravana's view. This explain the description of her
thighs as burly, given by Ravana in the verses above. I will talk more about this in another article
where I discuss Seetha's kidnap/elopement by/with Ravana.

During Seetha's time in Lanka, despite all her embellishments while residing in the Ashoka Vatika like
royalty, she did not cover her upper body, suggesting that rakshasiis too would not cover their upper
body. This is shown by the way Seetha laments when she finds out Indrajit had defeated Rama and
Lakshmana and had made them unconscious. Initially, after Indrajita had defeated Rama and
Lakshmana by making them fall on the ground, he thought that they both were dead. So he returned
to his father Ravana with joy and told him all that had happened. Ravana was extremely happy and
ordered the rakshasiis that were protecting Seetha to show Rama and Lakshmana's dead body on
the battle field, using the Pushpaka Vimana. It was then that Seetha lamented seeing the (dead)
bodies of Rama and Lakshmana. She lamented by saying that how could her husband die, despite
her having all the auspicious marks? She then goes on to describe the auspicious marks on her body
to Trijata, a rakshasii protecting her. She says (Yuddha Kanda Section 48):

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