The story of textiles in India is among the oldest in the world, dating back to prehistoric times. Examples have been found depicting waist garments in Mesolithic cave paintings, but concrete evidence of textile production and use first appears from the proto-historic times, i.e., the 3^rd Millennium BCE. The evidence of wild indigenous silk moth species from Harappa and Chanhudaro suggests the use of silk in the mid-3rd millennium BCE.

Tragically, none of the wealth related to ancient Indian textile manufacturing has survived. However, this lack of tangible evidence is partly offset by an abundance of archaeological finds and literary references. The excavations at the site of Mohenjo-Daro (C.2500 to 1500 BCE) revealed the presence of dye vats together with woven and madder-dyed (a herb dye) cotton fragments wrapped around a silver pot. This reflects an advanced understanding of the process of colour fixing on the cloth using a mordant, an organic oxide that combines with a dye and fixes it in the material.

Furthermore, a stone sculpture recovered from excavations is carved out in a relief, very clearly depicting a patterned cloth draped around the figure. These two pieces of evidence are clear testimony to the mature textile craftsmanship of the ancient Indian civilisation.

The discovery of spindles and spindle whorls in the houses of the Indus Valley inferred that the spinning of cotton and wool was very common. The earliest specimens of spindle whorls, in stone, clay, metal, terracotta, or wood, have been found at the Indus sites of Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro, Chanhudaro, Lothal, Urkatoda, and Kalibangan. Cotton is believed to have occupied a prominent place among the Harappans’ commercial crops.

From the archaeological evidence, we get a glimpse of the costumes worn during the Harappan Civilisation. The Mother Goddess figurines, which are bare to the waist, indicate that women wore a very scant lower garment that reached down to the knee.

From the figurine of Priest King with trefoil (threefold leaves design) from the site at Mohenjo-Daro, it appears that a robe, with or without embroidery, was worn over the left shoulder and under the right arm. The figure of a man on a shard found at Harappa appears to be wearing breeches or a close-clinging dhoti.

The art of sewing was also practised in ancient India, as evidenced by the number of needles found at the site. Evidence of textiles is lacking for the 1000 years following the decline of the ancient Indus Valley sites. However, the Greek physician Ctesias’ writing in the early 5th century BCE mentions the popularity of brightly coloured Indian textiles among Persians, indicating that Indian fabrics were exported even after this period.

From the Vedic period (1500-800 BCE), we get references to materials and modes of dress that point to developments in the textile history of ancient India. A weaver in the Rigveda is described as a vasovaya. The male weaver was called vaya, whereas the female weaver was called vayitri. The Rigveda refers mainly to two garments: the vasa, or lower garment, and the adhivasa, or upper garment. In the later Samhitas, the nivi or undergarment had also come into use. The atkal (garment) appears to be described as woven and well-fitting. Often, there are mentions of a mantle or covering cloth and a cloak symbolising authority. References to embroidery also appear in Vedic texts in the form of pesas, or embroidered garments, which seem to have been used by female dancers.

There seems to have been a general fashion for dressing well, as inferred from words like ‘suvasas’ and ‘suvasana’ (well-clad). Garments were of various colours, and by this time in history, the use of clothing was firmly established, and clothing metaphors are very frequently mentioned in the Rigveda. In a hymn dedicated to Indra, praise and hymns are compared to elegant, well-made garments, or vastrevabhadra Sukrita, as fit to be received as a respectful present. urna sutra (woollen thread) is constantly mentioned in the later Samhitas and Brahmanas. 

The dress of the later Vedic period also seems to have consisted of nivi, vasa, and adhivasa. The use of silk and wool in this period is evident from the Satapatha Brahmana, which describes a set of sacrificial garments comprising a silk undergarment (taipya), an undyed wool garment, and a turban. The frequent use of terms for ‘warp’ and ‘woof’ shows the development reached by this time in the art of weaving.

The earliest reference to the printed fabric is found in the word ‘Chitranta’ in the Apastamba Srauta Sutra from the Vedic era. Yajnopavita, the sacred thread worn by Brahmins, was made from cotton yarn.

The Post-Vedic period witnessed two divergent lines regarding the nature or source of materials used for textile purposes. Those pursuing the Vedic line of animal sacrifice sought the primary source of clothing in skins, while others, the Buddhists and Jains in particular, sought it in cotton.

The Sanskrit epic Mahabharata (400 BCE-400 CE) mentions silk fabrics among the presents brought to Yudhisthira by feudatory princes from the Himalayan regions. References to weaving are pervasive from the Rigveda onwards. There were female weavers from the earliest times. The Mahabharata also refers to the printed cloth. The usual word used for printed clothing is chitra vastra. This clearly shows that fabrics were also printed in ancient India. In the Mahabharata, there is a reference to the ‘Mani Chira,’ probably a South Indian fabric with pearls woven into the fringe.

According to Valmiki’s Ramayana (5th/6th–3rd century CE), Sita’s trousseau included woollen clothing, furs, precious stones, fine silk vestments of diverse colours, and princely ornamental and grand carriages of different kinds. The veil, bodice, and body clothes are repeatedly mentioned in the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. The upper and lower garments used by the bride as well as the groom at the time of the wedding were made of silk fabric with swan motifs woven over them. In the Ramayana, there are numerous references to printed cloth. The ladies of Ravana wore garments of variegated hues: printed carpets, printed blankets, and printed dresses were distributed as gifts.

A treatise on statecraft, Kautilya’s Arthashastra (4th century BCE), dealt with methods for distributing materials to spinners and weavers, whether the workers were guild members or worked privately at home. It mentions ‘ordinances’ to distribute materials to spinners and weavers. The fabrics referred to in this book include white bark from Bengal, linen from Banaras, and cotton from South India. It also refers to a very soft and delicate class of blankets.

In the Arthashastra, cotton as a source of the king’s revenue is discussed, but the emphasis is mainly on skins and wools, or at most on silks, grasses, and plant fibres. Megasthenes, a Greek ambassador to the court of Chandragupta Maurya, in his book Indica, mentions that Indian robes are worked in gold and ornamented with precious stones and that they wear flowered garments made of the finest muslins.

Buddhist literature refers to various types of textile fabrics, such as linen (Khoman), cotton (Kappasikam), and silk (Kosseyam). Other related words found in the text are the weavers (tantuvaya), the place of weaving (tantavitatatthanam), weaving appliances (tantabhanda), and the loom (tantaka). Jatakas refer to tools for spinning and weaving. Silk is mentioned in the Buddhist Jatakas, and the Pali literature presents a rich picture of the textile art of the Buddhist period and also describes fabrics, including the famous fabric of Banaras known as ‘kaseyyaka’ (silk of Benaras) and woollen blankets of Gandhara, a bright red colour.

The Jain texts mention cotton thread (Kappasikasuttam) and cotton cloth (kappasi kadusam). Panini, an ancient grammarian in the Ashtadhyayi (5th/4th century BCE, the oldest surviving grammar text), mentions tula, perhaps cotton, as one of the prevalent fabrics. He refers to the tantra as a loom, avaya as the place where the weaver plied his loom, and pravani as the shuttle. Patanjali describes the spinner spinning cotton into three categories: very thin, medium, and coarse. Kautilya describes that threads (sutras), coats (varma), and cloth (vastras) were manufactured by skilled artisans. The Arthashastra refers to the superintendent of yarns (sutradhyaksa) responsible for regulating yarn spinning.

In the Gupta period, fine-quality fabric was manufactured for the elite, and coarse fabric for the poor. In Amarkosha (a thesaurus written during the Gupta period), we find words related to cotton cloth (karpasam, phalam), thread (tantu, sutram), a weaving tool (vema, vamadanda), and the weaving of cloth (vani, vyuti).

In this period, fine cloth with a beautiful goose pattern is referred to by Kalidas as forming the dress of Parvati. In the 7th century, Banabhatta refers to costly textiles manufactured by the tie-and-dye process in a variety of designs. Egyptian mummies are known to have been wrapped in Indian muslin. A fragment of resist-dye cotton cloth was discovered in Central Asia.

An eyewitness account of the dress of the 7th century BCE was given by Hieun Tsiang, a Chinese monk-traveller, who mentions that white garments were worn. ‘The men used to wind their garments round their middle, then gather them under the armpits, and let them fall across the body, hanging to the right. The robes of the women fell to the ground and completely covered their shoulders.’ He mentions the garments were made of kau-she-ye (product of wild silkworm), cotton, and of T’so-mo (kshauma), which is a sort of hemp garment made of kien-po-lo (blanket), which is woven from fine goat hair, and was very valuable and regarded as fine clothing. In North India, people wore short and close-fitting garments. The costumes were of varied colours, and the sramanas (monks who practised asceticism and practised a lifestyle in pursuit of spiritual liberation) wore robes.