Rajasthan Quiz: Costumes, Ornaments and Customs

The borla is a small round ornament that hangs at the parting of the hair and rests at the centre of the forehead; it is a sign of a married woman and belongs above all to Marwar, where it is also called rakhdi.

The kardhani, also called tagdi, is the belt of linked metal worn round the waist by women; the corresponding ornament worn by men is the kandora.

The name comes from the word for the lotus, which is the chief motif of the print, and the yellow ground marks an auspicious event; the garment is given to a mother after childbirth and is also worn at Teej and other festive occasions.

Lahariya takes its name from the word for a wave, and its diagonal stripes, produced by rolling the cloth and tying it before dyeing, are said to stand for the running water of the rains; safas and odhnis of this pattern are worn in Sawan and at the Teej festival…

Sanganer lies just south of Jaipur city and is known for its fine floral block printing on a white or cream ground, worked with delicate outlines and soft colours, and the neighbouring village of Bagru in the same district prints bolder motifs in black and red.

In dabu the printer stamps a paste of clay, gum and other material on the cloth, dyes it, and then washes off the paste to leave the covered areas undyed, and Akola is the centre with which the craft is identified, although the technique is also practised at Bagru.

The mother's brother arrives with clothes, ornaments and money for his sister and her children, and the occasion is treated as a binding obligation of the maternal family, celebrated with songs of its own.

On the night before a wedding, a naming or another household rite, the women of the family stay awake and sing songs in honour of the family deities; the word itself means keeping watch through the night.

The timaniya is a broad neckpiece set with stones that is worn close to the throat, in the same family as the hansli, the aad, the mohanmala and the chandanhaar, all of them neck ornaments of Rajasthan.

Among the Bhil and Garasia communities the family of a person who dies in an accident or a quarrel demands a payment from the family held responsible, the amount being settled traditionally by the panchayat, and the administration has long discouraged the custom because unsettled claims turn into long feuds.

The desert is bitterly cold at night in the winter months, and the atamsukh, whose name suggests comfort to the self, is the long quilted coat worn over the usual clothes at that season.

The mosar is held some days after the funeral and the whole community is invited, and because poor families often borrowed heavily to hold it, social reformers and the state have long urged that it be kept simple.