Clothing in India choli, above it. A "saree" or "sari" is a female garment in the Indian subcontinent. A sari is a strip of unstitched cloth, ranging from four to nine meters in length, that is draped over the body in various styles. These include: Sambalpuri Saree from East, Mysore silk and Ilkal of Karnataka and, Kanchipuram of Tamil Nadu from South, Paithani from West and Banarasi from North among others. The most common style is for the sari to be wrapped around the waist, with one end then draped over the shoulder baring the midriff. The sari is usually worn over a
Sari of life and creativity, hence the midriff is to be left bare by the sari. Early Sanskrit literature has a wide vocabulary of terms for the veiling used by women, such as "Avagunthana" (oguntheti/oguṇthikā), meaning cloak-veil, "Uttariya" meaning shoulder-veil, "Mukha-pata" meaning face-veil and "Sirovas-tra" meaning head-veil. In the "Pratimānātaka", a play by Bhāsa describes in context of "Avagunthana" veil that ""ladies may be seen without any blame (for the parties concerned) in a religious session, in marriage festivities, during a calamity and in a forest"". The same sentiment is more generically expressed in later Sanskrit literature. Śūdraka, the author of