Created BY

Sub: Attire of Assam

Date: 18/09/2010
Attire silk is one of the many nature's gift to Assam. The speciality of this silk is it's
golden bright colour. "Muga" is derived from the Assamese word 'muga' meaning
yellowish. It is superior in every respect from the normal white silk available allover
the world. This silk is much more durable than the normal one. And interestinglyit's
brightness improves with evry wash while the normal silk has to be very carefully
washed. Apart from normal dressings, it is used in other furnishing and decoration
stuff too. Muga clothes are so durable that it can be used for decades. Muga Silk is
supposed to be one of the costliest fabrics in the whole world.
 Muga Polu

 Muga is produced from cocoons of 'Antheraea Assamensis' which is

available only in Assam. Muga worm('Muga Polu' in Assamese) also
has the same lifecycle as silkworm,ie. egg, caterpillar, pupa and
moth.
Antheraea Assamensis Moth's eggs (popularly known as seeds) are
laid out on the Som and Soalu leaves to hatch out into caterpillars
about 2mm long. They grow rapidly, eat voraciously and end up
about 30 mm long after four to five weeks. During this time, they
change skins four times.
 Muga Polu Cultivation

After the final skin change straw frames are provided in which silkworms make its cocoon. Cocoon
making takes further eight days. Man interferes this life cycle at the cocoon stage to obtain the silk,
a continuous filament of commercial importance, used in weaving silk, the dream fabric.

These silk worms yield a beautiful golden thread that is much sought after for its colour and sheen.
It takes the silkworm another three to four days to transform into a pupa and another 15 days for the
moth to emerge, but this is not allowed to take place for all.
 Mekhela-Sadar of Muga
Silk

 It's the artistics creativity of the weavers in various corners of

Assam which add more to the natural gloden glow of Muga.
Sualkusi which is situated in Kamrup is famous muga silk weaving.
The weavers embroiders various beautiful varities to the muga
wearings. The muga dress are usually very rich in colors and have
embroidery of flowers, trees, leaves,bihu related structures, etc.
This makes the dress very spectacular and unique.
Traditionally muga is used to make mekhela - sadar (equivalent of
Saree in Assam) for girls and kurtas for boys. Till date it is
considered to be the most sophisticated attire in Assam.
 Jaapi, the hat like head gear, keeps significant
importance in Assamese culture and society.
Jaapi is one of those few names which any
person from Assam think of when it comes to
Assamese culture. Over the course of time Jappi
has found it's own way from paddy fields to the
aristocratic drawing rooms.
 ancient days, Jaapi was mainly used as a hat by farmer and
cowherds. But the size of the jaapi used to be very large and in
the rainy climatic condition of Assam, it was very useful. It is
much more comfortable to use than an umbrella for farmers.
There were mainly two types of Jaapi. Haaluwa(Farmer) Jaapi
and Gorokhiya(Cowherd) Jaapi. Haalwa jaapi used to be bigger
in size than the Gorokhiya Jaapi. There are mention of Jaapi in
history in the royal families too. A different compact colourful
Jaapi was used by the ladies of royal families as head gear too.

 The origin of Jaapi is not yet known accurately. Apart from

North Eastern region, nothing similar to Jaapi is found in the
rest of India. This provides strong reason to believe that Jaapi
may have influences of Thai, Mongolian culture. But as there is
no mention of the same in the history, so Jaapi is now a days
considered to be indigenous attire of Assam. Jaapi has been
refered in various traditional stories of Assam. It is also refered
in various folk songs like Bihu also. So, though it's not known
when exactly Assamese society started using Jaapi, but it can be
confirmed that Jaapi has been used since ages.
 Gamosa - Beautifully
Woven Motifs

 Gamosa (Gamocha/ Gamusa) is a unique identity of Assamese Society.

This small piece of cloth has high esteem and wide usage in Assamese
culture. Gamosa is one unique cloth article in it's usage and looks,
nowhere in the rest of India something like 'Gamosa' is found. Gamosa is
also known as 'Bihuwaan', as it is an essential part of Bihu festival of
Assam.

The origin of Gamosa is still vague to the historians. It's not known whether it was
originated in Assam or came from far east like Thailand, where small clothes like
Gamosa are in use. It's for sure that Gamosa didn't come from other parts of India
there is no such article used anywhere else in India. So, it can be assumed that
Gamosa is a great innovation of Assamese weaver.
 There are few references of Gamosa in history of Assam.
Historian Dr. Leela Gogoi mentioned the usage of Gamosa
during Ahom days. There is also a reference of Gamosa from
the days of Srimanta Sankardeva. "Sankardeva's disciple
Srimanta Madhavdeva got the news of sad demise of
Sankardeva when his son Ramananda Thankur came running
wearing a Gamosa in his head." Edward Gaite's 'A History
Assam' also mentions about Gamosa. According to this book in
1739 a Gamosa cost 6 paise.

Design:
 Gamosa is of rectangular shape, around 2 feet in width and 4
feet in height, closer to the shape of a towel. It's white in
colour with red borders. One or two borders on the width, are
woven with very artistic embroidery. The raw materialused for
weaving Gamosa is cotton. But some gamosa used in special
occassions are made of Silk too. Though it's pretty simple,
weavers show their artistic talents in the motifs of a gamosa.