Stories Behind the Sarees

To an Indian woman, a saree speaks volumes about her life. She might remember holding on to the tip of her mother’s saree as a child learning to walk or wrapping her own child in her saree. An article in the Straits Times praises the saree as “an ingenious creation by the ancient civilisations”. It not only protects women from extreme weather, it also celebrates the beauty of the female form.<a href="https://medium.com/the-national-library-blog/stories-behind-the-sarees-6631a4bc3e84#_ftn1" rel="noopener ugc nofollow">[1]</a> I find it profound that something as intimate as an item of clothing has also been the inspiration for epic tales in history. An example is the Mahabharata, in which the <a href="https://eservice.nlb.gov.sg/item_holding.aspx?id=13368293&type=bid" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">disrobing of Draupadi’s saree</a> brought about war and destruction. It makes me wonder if the <a href="https://eservice.nlb.gov.sg/item_holding.aspx?id=201116113&type=bid" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">first Indian female convict</a>, brought over to Singapore by the British in 1825, would have felt as traumatised as Draupadi, when she was asked to part with her saree, to abide by the prison rules.<a href="https://medium.com/the-national-library-blog/stories-behind-the-sarees-6631a4bc3e84#_ftn2" rel="noopener ugc nofollow">[2]</a> <a href="https://medium.com/the-national-library-blog/stories-behind-the-sarees-6631a4bc3e84">Click Here</a>