The History of Clothing

Early Modern · South Asia · 1500 - 1800

Early Modern South Asian Clothing

Under Mughal rule, South Asia became the world's greatest textile powerhouse, producing muslins so fine they were called 'woven air' and embroideries that dazzled courts from Delhi to London.

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Mughal Court Dress

Damaged Mughal painting of Emperor Jahangir investing a courtier with a robe of honour, with courtiers in jamas, sashes, and turbans watching Jahangir investing a courtier with a robe of honour, watched by Sir Thomas Roe, c. 1616, British Museum. Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.

The Mughal Empire (1526–1857) fused Central Asian, Persian, and Indian clothing traditions into one of history's most opulent court wardrobes. The jama, a long crossover robe tied at the side, became the foundation of Mughal male dress, worn over tight churidar trousers that gathered in folds at the ankle. Courtiers might wear an angarkha (a chest-wrapping coat) in its place, and tie a patka (a wide sash) at the waist. The emperor's garments were distinguished by the finest fabrics — gossamer-weight muslin from Bengal, heavy kimkhab brocade densely patterned in gold and silk thread, and pashmina and shahtoosh shawls from Kashmir, the finest said to pass through a finger ring.

Women of the Mughal court wore the peshwaz, a long, flowing dress gathered below the bust, over pajama trousers, with a sheer dupatta or odhni draped over the head and shoulders. Jewelry was inseparable from dress: layered necklaces, arm bands, anklets, and forehead ornaments completed every ensemble. The Mughal passion for surface decoration fostered extraordinary embroidery traditions, including zardozi (gold wire embroidery) and chikankari (white-on-white embroidery, later centered on Lucknow), while village women in Punjab developed phulkari (floral embroidery), a folk tradition best known from nineteenth- and twentieth-century examples.

Textiles and Regional Traditions

Detail of a painted and dyed cotton palampore with a flowering tree rising from stylized red, blue, and purple hills, with a red floral border Palampore, Coromandel Coast, for the Sri Lankan market, first quarter of the 18th century, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010.337. Wikimedia Commons, CC0.

South Asia's early modern textile production was unrivaled in scale and sophistication. Dhaka muslin, woven from the finest hand-spun cotton, was so sheer that a full-length sari was said to pass through a ring — its grades bore poetic names such as "woven air" and "running water." The Banarasi silk weavers of Varanasi supplied the Mughal court from the 17th century, producing brocades with intricate floral patterns in gold zari thread. Meanwhile, the chintz trade — painted and printed cotton from the Coromandel Coast — conquered global markets, with Indian fabrics reaching Europe, Southeast Asia, and East Africa in enormous quantities.

Regional dress remained distinct beneath the Mughal overlay. In South India, men continued to wear the dhoti (an unstitched cloth wrapped around the lower body) and angavastram (shoulder cloth), while women draped the sari in styles that varied by community and region. Rajput courts in western India developed their own brilliant aesthetic, favoring vivid bandhani (tie-dye) turbans, fitted angarkhi tunics, and enormous pleated skirts called ghaghra for women. The interaction between Mughal courtly fashion and these regional traditions created a textile culture of extraordinary richness and variety.

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