What Are They Wearing?

Ah, fashion! And how it differs from one culture to another is amazing. One may wonder what this has to do with anything, but let me explain.

The paintings and drawings I show in this blog depict various people wearing what you might call "traditional Indian" or "vedic" clothing. This usually consists of men wearing a dhoti and women wearing sarees.

Most paintings and sculptures of Krishna that I have seen show Him wearing a dhoti. This is a long single piece of material that is artfully wrapped around to make a kind of "trouser". This vedic outfit still survives in India to this day and is worn by many men as an everyday item. For special occasions men might wear a silk dhoti or a dhoti with a very ornate border. ( How to wear a dhoti. )

An interesting side note: the simple, traditional, vedic dhoti is also shown in ancient Egyptian art! The Egyptians seem to have worn a shorter version of the dhoti, what Indians might call a lungi. Here is a fresco found in an ancient building depicting a hunting scene, and the Egyptian in the foreground is clearly wearing a lungi. Were the Egyptians part of that wonderful vedic culture? Did they trade with the ancient Indians? I'd like to think so :)

Anyway, getting back on track. Sarees are the most popular dress for Indian women. A saree is a very long piece of cloth that wraps around the body in a most beautiful way. It's a long thing explaining it but if you're interested you can watch this video on how to put on a saree.
However, Radha is a gopi (cowherd girl) and so she is almost always depicted wearing a skirt and choli with a dupatta. Gopis are milkmaids and wear something I like to call "countryside" couture. This style of dress is very popular in the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat, India. Wheareas sarees were more like "city" gear, usually worn by the upper class. But now nearly every woman in India wears a saree, regardless of caste, status, region, etc.

The type of dress that Radha wears is called a ghagra choli, lehenga, or more simply gopi skirt.


There is some argument about whether in Vedic times women wore cholis, because some say that it is an Arab invention. Many ancient Indian paintings and sculptures depict women wearing a small, single piece of cloth tied around the breasts (what us modern women might call a "boob tube") with a saree or skirt. It is said that Indian women didn't incorporate the choli into their costume until the Muslims invaded, then it sort of seeped into the culture. More recent paintings of Radha show her wearing and choli. Whether all this is true or not, I don't know.


Artist Raja Ravi Varma, 19th century painter from Kerala, India, incorporates both the choli and the "boob tube" in his paintings of women. Although, it seems he only paints the tube on forest women and ascetics, whereas city women and goddesses wear cholis.
To the left is one of Varma's paintings, and you can see that these forest women are not wearing cholis but the more primitive, or shall I say simplistic, alternative.

I especially like Varma's paintings because they are a wonderful blend of east-meets-west. Traditional Indian art tends to be quite stylized, from the voluptuous carvings on the ancient temples to the beautiful paintings of the Mughals and Rajputs.


B.G. Sharma is an artist who's work follows the tradition of Mughal, Kishangarh, and Kangra paintings of old. His paintings of Radha and Krishna are famous worldwide, and he is possibly one of the most renowned artists of his tradition.

His paintings of Radha always have very ornate cholis and skirts decorated with wonderful prints, reminiscent of Mughal textiles. In this painting Krishna is not wearing a dhoti but a very fancy outfit, generally associated with the Rajasthani tradition of dressing Krishna, made up of trousers and a large flowing skirt. This type of outfit incorporates an ornate large headdress that is also typical of this tradition. But until the Muslim invasion of India this style was not invented.

Sharma has a really gorgeous book with his paintings of Radha and Krishna. Form of Beauty: The Krishna Art of B.G.Sharma

Radha Krishna and the Eight Principle Gopis
Murlidhara Das, 1984

This is a famous painting, ( I did not paint this, just to make things clear) which I have loved very much since childhood. The artist has done a wonderful job of displaying the mood of Radha and Krishna, and also the beautiful clothes everyone is wearing. Here you can see the dhoti that Krishna is wearing and the beautiful skirts, cholis, and dupattas donned by the gopi girls.