It may thus reasonably be concluded that the Darzis are a caste
of comparatively recent origin, and the explanation is probably
that the use of the needle and thread in making clothes is a new
fashion. Buchanan remarks: "The needle indeed seems to have been
totally unknown to the Hindus, and I have not been able to learn
any Hindi word for sewing except that used to express passing the
shuttle in the act of weaving...." "Cloth composed of several pieces
sewn together is an abomination to the Hindus, so that every woman of
rank when she eats, cooks or prays, must lay aside her petticoat and
retain only the wrapper made without the use of scissors or needle";
and again, "The dress of the Hindu men of rank has become nearly the
same with that of the Muhammadans [512] who did not allow any officer
employed by them to appear at their _levées_ (Durbars) except in proper
dress. At home, however, the Hindu men, and on all occasions their
women, retain almost entirely their native dress, which consists of
various pieces of cloth wrapped round them without having been sewn
together in any form, and only kept in their place by having their
ends thrust under the folds." And elsewhere he states: "The flowering
of cotton cloth with the needle has given a good deal of employment
to the Muhammadan women of Maldeh as the needle has never been used by
the Hindus." [513] Darzi, as has been seen, is a Persian word, and in
northern India many tailors are Muhammadans. And it seems, therefore,
a possible hypothesis that the needle and the art of sewing were
brought into general use by the Moslem invaders. It is true that in
his _Indo-Aryans_ [514] Mr. Rajendra Lal Mitra combats this hypothesis
and demonstrates that made-up clothes were known to the Aryans of
the Rig-Veda and are found in early statuary. But he admits that the
instances are not numerous, and it seems likely that the use of such
clothes may have been confined to royal and aristocratic families. It
is possible also that the Scythian invasions of the fifth century
brought about a partial relapse from civilisation, during which certain
arts and industries, and among them that of cutting and sewing cloth,
were partially or completely lost. The tailor is not the familiar
figure in Hindu social life that he is, for example, in England. Here
he is traditionally an object or butt for ridicule as in the saying,
'Nine tailors make a man,' and so on; and his weakness is no doubt
supposed to be due to the fact that he pursues a sedentary indoor
occupation and one more adapted to women than men, the needle being
essentially a feminine implement. A similar ridicule, based no doubt
on exactly the same grounds, attaches in India to the village weaver,
as is evidenced by the proverbs given in the articles on Bhulia, Kori,
and Jolaha. No reason exists probably for the contempt in which the
weaver class is held other than that their work is considered to be
more fitting for women than men. Thus in India the weaver appears to
take the place of the tailor, and this leads to the conclusion that
woven and not sewn clothes have always been commonly worn.
In the Central Provinces, at least, the Darzi caste is practically
confined to the towns, and though cotton jackets are worn even by
labourers and shirts by the better-to-do, these are usually bought
ready-made at the more important markets. Women, more conservative in
their dress than men, have only one garment prepared with the needle,
the small bodice known as _choli_ or _angia_. And in Chhattisgarh,
a landlocked tract very backward in civilisation, the _choli_ has
hitherto not been worn and is only now being introduced. Though he
first copied the Muhammadan and now shows a partiality for the English
style of dress for outdoor use, the Hindu when indoors still reverts to
the one cloth round the waist and a second over the shoulders, which
was probably once the regular garb of his countrymen. For meals the
latter is discarded, and this costume, so strange to English ideas,
while partly based on considerations of ceremonial purity, may also
be due to a conservative adherence to the ancient fashion, when sewn
clothes were not worn. It is noticeable also that high-caste Hindus,
though they may wear a coat of cloth or tasar silk and cotton trousers,
copying the English, still often carry the _dupatta_ or shoulder-cloth
hanging round the neck. This now appears a useless encumbrance, but
may be the relic of the old body-cloth and therefore interesting as a
survival in dress, like the buttons on the back of our tail-coats to
which the flaps were once hooked up for riding, or the seams on the
backs of gloves, a relic of the time when the glove consisted simply
of finger-lengths sewn together. [515] More recently the _dupatta_ has
been made to fulfil the function of a pocket-handkerchief, while the
educated are now discarding the _dupatta_ and carry their handkerchiefs
in their pockets. The old dress of ceremony for landowners is the
_angarkha_, a long coat reaching to the knees and with flaps folding
over the breast and tied with strings. This is worn with pyjamas and is
probably the Muhammadan ceremonial costume as remarked by Buchanan. In
its correct form, at, least it has no buttons, and recalls the time
when a similar state of things prevailed in English dress and the
'trussing of his points' was a laborious daily task for every English
gentleman. The _ghundis_ or small pieces of cloth made up into a ball,
which were the precursors of the button, may still be seen on the
cotton coats of rustics in the rural area.
The substitution of clothes cut and sewn to fit the body for draped
clothes is a matter of regret from an artistic or picturesque point
of view, as the latter have usually a more graceful appearance. This
is shown by the difficulty of reproducing modern clothes in statuary,
trousers being usually the despair of the sculptor. But sewn clothes,
when once introduced, must always prevail from considerations of
comfort. When a Hindu pulls his _dhoti_ or loin-cloth up his legs and
tucks it in round his hips in order to run or play a game he presumably
performs the act described in the Bible as 'girding up his loins.'