Hindu girls were forbidden to wear blouses

 

Even in the last century, Hindu girls were forbidden to wear blouses to weddings. Gagan Tagore did not get permission to wear a sewn semi-dress/blouse during the wedding of his daughter Sunandini despite many attempts.

This ancient custom was broken from the Tagore family itself.

In Hindu scriptures, wearing any cloth sewn with needle or thread for any auspicious occasion was completely prohibited. Therefore, wearing blouses or semi-dresses for girls was considered an impure thing in Hindu scriptures. Therefore, wearing semi-dresses or blouses for girls in the auspicious ceremony called marriage was completely prohibited. This custom continued in India until the middle of the 19th century. Girls used to avoid shame by either folding some part of the saree or covering their chest with another cloth.

Gaganendranath Tagore, the son of the Tagore family, was a good artist and was also a pioneer in changing society. His artistic mind was always busy with new ideas.

Now let us come to the history of his own daughter Sunandini's marriage. Starting from the priest, after discussing with many scholars, Gagan Thakur did not get permission to wear a sewn semi-dress or blouse for his daughter Sujata's wedding. The priests said that they also wear a dhoti or chadar during marriage, and do not wear any kind of Punjabi because sewn things carry an inauspicious sign. Gaganendranath Thakur brought his daughter Sujata to the wedding stage wearing a blouse. Seeing his daughter wearing a blouse at the wedding ceremony, the groom's father objected to the marriage and Hindu scholars said that this marriage was unscriptural. Because the daughter was wearing a sewn garment (blouse) at the wedding ceremony. The father of the son decided not to marry Sujata to his son. It was during this extreme tension that the arrogant Gaganendranath Thakur claimed that his daughter Sujata did not wear any sewn clothes and he announced to everyone that if anyone present could prove that Sujata's blouse was sewn, he would give him a reward of one lakh rupees.

In the end, no one got this one lakh rupees. Because the girls of the boy's house checked and found that the blouse of the daughter for the wedding ceremony was not sewn. The artist Gaganendranath himself made this blouse or semi-dress for his daughter. He made Sujata's blouse by skillfully joining the pieces of her clothes with the help of expensive glue. This time, Sujata's wedding took place with great joy and pomp. This wedding dress of the daughter who wore the first blouse was placed in the Mohini Mohan Kanjilal Museum on College Street as an artwork of Gaganendranath Tagore. Since then, the girls of Bengal were allowed to wear semi-dresses or blouses for marriage.

(Collected)