fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2181 ]

[ SECRET POST #2181 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2181 ⌋

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I have a South-Asian character, female, 40+ years, who's wearing a sari.

Seeing as I'm not South-Asian, I'm terrified of getting something wrong.

All I've found out is that:
Red= brides.
Yellow= religious significance.
White= Mourning (?)
Green= merchant class (?)

As you can see, google hasn't been much help.

She's going to a ball (to help bring down an evil monarchy, but that's not the point) and most of her allies are going to be wearing blue. But apparently blue isn't well liked because of the caste system, so now I'm a bit flustered.

If anyone has any advice or experience to offer I'd be very grateful. It's technically a fantasy world I'm dealing with but I still want to handle a different culture with care.

...is purple an option?

Not from the culture myself, so take this with a huge sprinkling of salt, but I see a lot of orange saris on women of South-Asian origin around here.

I grew up in America, but I can say for sure red is weddings and white is what widows wear after their husbands die. Yellow is also related to weddings, in that it's worn in a separate party (kind of like a bridal shower, I guess you can say?) before the wedding, where henna is applied. I haven't heard about the religious significance of yellow or of blue being disliked (in fact, I think my mom has mostly blue saris, because both of us love the color blue), though.

As for your character's ball, is this in a specific time period where certain colors would be frowned upon? Because I once heard someone say South Asian people wear some of the most colorful clothes, and it's an accurate description, by my account. My mom has such a large variety of colorful saris, some simple, some spectacularly decorated with beads or gold, etc. She also has lots of jewelry to accessorize different outfits. I definitely don't think anything would be wrong with purple. :)

Thank you so much!

The blue and yellow thing is just something mentioned on the internet, which is why I wanted to ask rather than just assuming it was true. Sorry if I offended!

It's a fantasy world (that is connected to reality). This is more me trying to get things generally correct. Thank you for all your help.

Let me preface this by saying I'm speaking anecdotally - but based on my own experience (Malayalee Christian raised overseas, but my parents are Kerala born and bred (in a traditional rural village) and we often go back during the hols), your character's religion would be more important.

In Hinduism, for instance, white can be the colour of mourning, yes (or sometimes, it's saffron for the widow, but it depends). In Christian weddings, the brides have two saris, and the first is always pure white. (The second is usually bought by the groom's family and can be any colour; my cousin who recently got married had a gorgeous purple and gold one.) So yeah, the colours can have different symbolism depending on the religion.

Another thing to keep in mind is how prevalent the caste system is in your fantasy world. Certain parts of India might still hold on to parts of it, but others certainly don't. My folks are Christian (Syro-Malabar Catholic, if you want to be precise) and we don't do the caste thing. My Hindu friends are aware of it, but don't really care about it.

The younger generation (generalisation!) tends not to be as worried about either the caste system or traditional colour symbolism. Depending on the area your character grew up in (or where this ball is) she may be more or less traditional than average. Certainly my family (I'm including my aunts who're the age of your character) have no qualms about wearing blue. It all really depends on a lot of factors. If you've got your fantasy equivalent of a multi-religious society that isn't hugely traditional to the point of oppression, then... the colour is not a problem. Go for the blue, it's fine.

Thanks for answering,

wow the wedding sounds so pretty!

I thought the caste system sounded suspiciously old-fashioned, as I have a South-Asian friend (we've grown distant, unfortunately) who wore this amazing pink and blue one and didn't see any problem with it at all. It's just I don't want to offend anyone and I'm aware getting her sari blaringly wrong (like having it black, which seems to be incorrect) would just make it seem like I didn't give a toss about her.

There is a massive class system in the fantasy world, unfortunately. However the character I'm talking about is kind of...rising up against it, so maybe she would rock the blue sari and not care.

Thanks so much for your answers!

Anything religious, NO BLACK. For funerals, white. If it's a party, younger people might wear black "designer" saris - though they'd be far more likely to pick a little black dress - but some older ones might avoid it.

Nobody cares about the whole sari colour as related to castes thing anymore ime. I hadn't even heard of the blue sari thing before; certainly all my relatives, old and young, love blue and green, and we're not lower caste. So do my friends, no matter what caste they're from.

Yes, purple is perfectly acceptable. If you want to be impressive, say it's a heavy Kanjeevaram sari with beautiful zari work. And if she's not used to wearing saris, bitch about how long it takes to drape it. ;)

http://shopping.rediff.com/product/purple-kanjivaram-silk-saree-with-heavy-zari-pallu/10467653

This one's banarasi and a beautiful blue:

http://www.exoticindiaart.co.in/product/textiles/campanula-blue-banarasi-sari-with-all-over-woven-paisleys-in-zari-and-jute-thread-SAP20/

If you have any widows, put them in white if you like, but I don't know any who'd dream of actually sticking to that. My grandmother has a colourful collection which she shows off very happily, and heaven help anyone who tries to take it from her. (Disclaimer: obviously there's plenty who religiously stick to white: it varies.)

Really, just relax - India is VERY diverse, and anything true of one community is likely to be very different in another, and completely ignored by the younger generations. Meaning you basically have carte blanche, particularly since it's a fantasy universe.

Also, if your character is modern, upper class and well educated, don't harp on the caste stuff. Chances are she rarely if ever remembers it exists in everyday life, and will have no clue what the castes of most people interacting with her might be. If she's not... maybe avoid it anyway, it's not an easy issue to discuss at all, and you'd likely wind up with it hijacking the story.

Maybe you could link it when it's done? I'm kinda interested. :)

sa

whoops - replace "India" with "South Asia"

Ah it's a fantasy world, so things are pretty old-fashioned fashion-wise.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply anything about blue, it's just the junk I've gleaned from google (which as you can see, clearly isn't right!).

Damn those saris (is that the right plural? Sari. Saris. Sarii?) are GORGEOUS. I love the blue one!

There's a massive class system in this world, unfortunately. However this character is sort of...leading a massive revolution against the oppressive regime...so she'd probably wear blue and not care at all, let alone particularly judge people on who they are/what they wear.

It's less about the caste system in reality, and more about me being aware that, if I'm going to have a character in a sari, I'd better do it right or else come off as looking like a complete idiot.

But thanks for your advice, and the pictures! They've been very useful. I'll try to relax and avoid too much 'real-world' parallels with the whole colour thing.

She's actually a character in a novel I'm writing at the moment, that I will eventually try and get published. But hey, if that falls through and I end up posting it online, I'll happily link it to you :D

da

How close is your fantasy world to real life? I think you can get away with the questionable blue if different castes are represented by different colors in your world and the characters in your world say something what the new colors are before the blue sari happens.

Not close at all. Again, it's just me wanting to make sure no readers are offended by what this particular character is wearing because it's massively incorrect.

ayrt

tl;dr ahead

If you've got the caste system plus a revolution there's a lot of stuff you can play with. If you have a class system... they're not quite the same. If your verse involves the latter, then it's somewhat easier to move between the classes. If the former, then remember to clearly define what each caste may: eat; drink; learn; trade; occupations; gods; superstitions; legends; rivalries and feuds; alliances; whom they speak to and whom they may marry (arranged, of course: look up honour killings if you have a strong stomach). And if you're going all out to incorporate the multiple religions and communities and their attitudes towards the oppressive regime (singular?) and each other, I salute you.

Re: saris (you can spell it sari or saree, i think sari is more common) - look up how to drape a sari. If you want to describe one, you'll have to mention the blouse, pallu (long length that goes over the shoulder), the pleats in the front, and the borders; also zari. Look up the weavers, too - there are various types of saris that are distinctively made by each guild, several of which are pretty old.

Also, be aware that there are distinctive ways to drape a sari, which can show exactly what community you're from (not sure about caste). Ease of movement varies based on style of draping and material; they're not exactly easy to run in at the best of times. Also jewellery - the mangalasutra, for example, which is the necklace a Hindu woman wears after she's married (like a wedding ring), has variations for each community. And I believe the burquas that muslim women wear when they reach puberty are designed a little differently based on community - plain black burquas, black burquas with understated designs, and some light-coloured burquas.

Sorry for rambling too much >_>.

Good luck with getting it published!

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