The Woman Who Changed the Way India Wears the Saree
The blouse, the petticoat and the neat front pleats we take for granted are barely 160 years old. Meet Jnanadanandini Devi, the woman who reshaped how India drapes the saree.
Picture a saree today and you will almost certainly imagine a fitted blouse, a petticoat beneath, neat pleats at the front and the pallu falling over the left shoulder. It feels timeless. Yet this way of wearing the saree is surprisingly young, and much of its story leads back to one remarkable woman from Bengal.
A world behind closed doors
In 19th-century Bengal, women of many well-born families lived largely within the inner quarters of the home. The saree was often worn as a single length of cloth, without a blouse or petticoat. It was graceful at home, but hardly practical for a woman who wished to step into public life.
Jnanadanandini Devi was married into the illustrious Tagore family as a young girl. Her husband, Satyendranath Tagore, was the elder brother of the poet Rabindranath Tagore and, in 1864, became the first Indian to join the Indian Civil Service.
A journey west
When Satyendranath was posted to the Bombay Presidency, Jnanadanandini did something very unusual for her time: she went with him. In western India she saw Parsi women wearing the saree with a blouse and a petticoat, the fabric arranged in neat pleats. It was elegant, modest and made for moving freely through the world.
When she returned to Calcutta, she adapted what she had seen into a new style: a long-sleeved blouse and a petticoat beneath, pleats tucked at the front and the pallu over the left shoulder, often fastened with a brooch. She is said to have even offered to teach the new drape to other women through an advertisement in a women's magazine.
A few pleats and a blouse helped a generation of women step out into the world.
From Brahmika to everyday
The style was quickly taken up by women of the reformist Brahmo Samaj, and for a time it was known as the Brahmika saree. Over the following decades it spread to schools, offices and city homes across India. Together with its close cousin, the Nivi drape of Andhra Pradesh, it became the way most Indian women wear the saree today.
The anatomy of the modern drape
A fitted top that made the saree practical for public life.
An underskirt that holds the tucks and lets the pleats fall evenly.
Folded and tucked at the waist for ease of walking.
Showing off the richest part of the weave, often pinned in place.
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1850Born in Jessore
Jnanadanandini is born in Bengal and later married into the Tagore family.
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1864A historic posting
Satyendranath Tagore joins the Indian Civil Service and is posted to western India.
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1860s to 1870sA new drape
Jnanadanandini adapts the Parsi style and popularises it in Calcutta.
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1885A literary first
She founds Balak, one of the early Bengali magazines for children.
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TodayA drape for millions
Her style lives on in the way most Indian women wear the saree.
Jnanadanandini's children's magazine Balak counted her young brother-in-law, Rabindranath Tagore, among its contributors, years before he won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Every time you fold your pleats and pin your pallu, you are wearing a little piece of this history: the story of a woman who travelled further than most women of her time and brought back a new way to dress.
New to draping? Our soft silk sarees are light, fluid and the easiest fabric for crisp, beautiful pleats.
- Mukulika Banerjee and Daniel Miller, The Sari (Berg, 2003)
- Rta Kapur Chishti, Saris: Tradition and Beyond (Roli Books, 2010)
