Entry#3 - Original form (probably!) This style is similar to kashta (Maharashtra), bootheyara (Bidar and Gulbarga districts of Karnataka). In both styles the bottom part is worn dhoti style and can be independent of the cloth covering the upper part. Here I have used two traditional Kerala cotton sarees.
After my Madisar and Bengali style I badly wanted to try another kachchan style of wearing saree. I was torn between bootheyara style from Karnataka (I grew up in Bangalore, so wanted to give it a shot) and Marathi style (because Nauvari is so beautiful!). I started wondering just how many more saree draping styles are based on kachchan? So I did some research and found something really interesting.
It is quite possible that the original style of saree had 3 pieces of cloth - 1-worn waist-down as dhoti-style, 2-tied around the chest, 3-worn as a dhupatta across the body. Long back when my aunt and I were discussing about madisar, she mentioned (from her readings) that originally there was no madisar-style as such. Woman just wound a long length of cloth around them - for modesty and convenience. Over a period of time it evolved into a specific style of draping (madisar) and length (9yards). So what I found from Wiki kind of matched this.
This also took me back to Amish Tripathi's description of the attire women wore in Shiva Trilogy and Ram Chandra series. Both Sati (in Shiva Trilogy) and Sita (in Ram Chandra series) are described as wearing a long cloth dhoti-style waist down, a cloth to cover their chest, and a dhupatta across their chest over a shoulder. While reading the book I didn't think much of this, but now I realized the significance! This style has also been depicted in devotional movies and teleseries. But due to the garish and sometimes vulgar mess they make we don't quite like it (at least I never did).
Apart from the vague theoretical description of the attire all I had was a depiction of Sita in 'Sita-Warrior of Mithila' book (by Amish Tripathi). Even though Sita is turned the other way, this is the best reference I could find.
So now armed with all this I went about wearing one of the Kerala saree dhoti-style based on multiple videos from YouTube. Believe me, that was the most torturous part of this styling. Watching a middle-aged man wearing dhoti over and over is no fun! Oh Lord! Am sure even my husband wouldn't have seen it that many times when he wears dhoti. Next, I used the second Kerala saree to tie it around my hip and drape it across my chest over my shoulder.
And now coming to the fun part! I was quite taken aback by Amish Tripathi's portrayal of Sita. Just imagine - we have always known Sita as the loyal wife of Rama, who worshiped him and never seemed to see a world beyond him. The mere name Sita is associated with being docile and soft-spoken. Whereas the Sita in Amish's book was a terrific departure from what we have known! She is depicted as a warrior who protects her kingdom and defends it when under attack by Raavan. I was in love with her character. So, for this style I decided to take her as an inspiration and used Silambam stick as my prop.
My daughter is learning Kalari. So I used her silambam stick and she also helped me with a few poses to strike for the pics :) I would have loved to do the jumping pose (will post pic in comment) but unfortunately am not as agile, so stuck to simple ones. I am also devoid of any accessories (in the cover depiction Sita is in vanavaas - so she is not wearing any jewelry) and kept make-up minimal with just black bindhi and kajal.
Hope this is as much fun for you as it was for me while creating it!
