Purushu Arie was founded as a fashion blog in 2009 while Purushu was studying fashion design at NIFT New Delhi. In 2017, Purush Arie's blog evolved into India's 1st exclusively ungendered clothing label. Purushu spoke about gender neutral revolution through fashion at TEDxChennai in March 2018. Purushu's signature silhouettes include tailored lungis and saris. Purushu Arie designs with the ethos of sustainable intersectional inclusivity that defies gender, caste, & class status quo.

Mohenjo Daro Trailer Gets The Costumes Wrong

We’re talking about Bollywood, where a short & stout Mughal emperor Akbar is depicted as a tall and toned sex symbol in a Filmfare award-winning portrayal. That’s Bollywood for you, an industry known for unnecessarily glamorizing anything and everything. The trailer of Ashutosh Gowarikar’s latest period drama Mohenjo Daro opens with subtitles, “It’s imperative that I tell you the truth about the past. Or else, the future generations will never know, the truth or goodness, of Mohenjo Daro.” The subtitles were juxtaposed on the visual where Hrithik Roshan, is wearing bifurcated dhoti trousers and cut & sewn top – garments that never existed in the Mohenjo Daro period. “Hello, it’s me,” sings irony.

The costumes are designed by Emmy award winner April Ferry and three-time National award winner Neeta Lulla. The latter designed the breathtaking costumes in Jodhaa Akbar. One can study the differences between Rajput & Mughal costumes by watching Jodhaa Akbar and that should explain the quality of Neeta Lulla’s costume design. So, how did two incredible talents succumb to exotic desi stereotypes and create garments irrelevant to the Mohenjo Daro era?

TROUSERS WEREN’T PROMINENT IN MOHENJO DARO

India is a hot and humid nation and due to climatic conditions, both men and women living in Mohenjo Daro simply wrapped a rectangular cloth in lungi style. Bifurcated garments gain prominence much later sometime around Kushanas.

Mohenjo Daro Costume design

Here is one of the earliest documented evidence of trousers in the Kushana statue… approx. 2000 years after Indus Valley Civilization.

SV-AS10 ImageData

NO LAYERING

Men and women predominantly left their upper bodies uncovered in the Mohenjo Daro era. People occasionally draped fabric across the shoulders. Layering different pieces of clothing wasn’t in vogue in the IVC era.

Mohenjo Daro costume design

 

 GARMENTS WERE MORE DRAPED THAN CUT & SEW

Elaborately cut & sewn garments like kurta, jama or trousers weren’t prominent in the Mohenjo Daro era. People simply draped their garments over the body back then – a custom that evolved into modern saris and dhotis.

Mohenjo daro costume design

 

PRINTED FABRICS

The earliest reference of printed cotton in India comes approximately around 300BC. The ancient art of textile printing was popularized sometime roughly around the 4th and 5th centuries BC. The elaborately printed turban is a bit way too ahead of time.

Mohenjo-daro-costume-design-5-printed turban never existed

 

FABRIC DYE COLOUR

Indus Valley Civilization had access to fabric dyes. Although the only surviving fragment of coloured cloth is dyed red with madder, historians believed indigo and turmeric were used. However, colours like purple didn’t exist in the era. The oldest known pigment of purple was made from mollusc extracted from Mediterranean Sea snail, recorded since 4BC. The colour was so expensive back then that only the noble class could afford it – the reason why purple is associated with royalty and luxury. The men in the screenshots have travelled to the future and obtained the rich purple fabrics.

Mohenjo-daro-costume-design-8-clothing dyesMohenjo-daro-costume-design-10-purple

 

WOMEN DIDN’T WEAR BRA

Women left their upper bodies uncovered for most of our clothing history. But censor board gives no choice to filmmakers since Mohenjo Daro clothing culture isn’t acceptable in modern Indian society. During the Mauryan era, women still covered their upper body with breastbands known as patidhi… but they didn’t wear modern bras at least till British Raj happened.

Mohenjo-daro-costume-design-6-elaborate jewlery or bra

 

SUPPOSED TO BE UNGENDERED CLOTHING

Back in Indus Valley Civilization, clothing of men and women is supposed to be more similar than different – WRAPPED GARMENTS, DUH!

Mohenjo-daro-costume-design-7-unisex clothing

 

PRISTINE WHITES DIDN’T EXIST

Though bleaching technique was known to ancient Indians, they mostly used natural bleaching techniques like sun drying etc and not chemicals like chlorine or peroxides. As a result, fabrics of ancient India came in tints & shades of white rather than in pristine white.

11-pristine whites

 

PEOPLE IN MOHENJO DARO WERE DARK-SKINNED

Natives of Indus Valley Civilization, often regarded as Dravidians (or proto-Dravidians) by most scholars due to cultural & linguistic similarities, were dark-skinned people. Light skinned Yamnaya pastoralists or Indo-Aryan nomads established provinces in modern-day Pakistan-Afghan regions around 1500BC – which also coincidentally marks the end of Indus Valley Civilization.

pooja hegde mohenjo daro

 

POSSIBLE SKIN TONE & FACIAL BONE STRUCTURE OF PEOPLE IN MOHENJO DARO…

mohenjo daro dark skinned people

 

AND THE HORSE DEBATE…

12 horses
Indus Valley Civilization knows nothing about horse or horse chariots as the animal isn’t native to India. From time to time people have come up with what appear to be the bones of quasihorses, protohorses like the donkey, or the Dawn Horse, or the ass or onager; but horse bones are hard to decipher, and these are much disputed. Wild horses aren’t naturally found in India due to environmental factors. It is widely regarded that horses first came to India after/around 1700BC when Yamnaya pastoralists or Indo-Aryan nomads migrated to India.

Note: Brahminical supremacists claim that Aryans are the original inhabitants of both Harappan & Vedic civilization. However, archaeological finds, the study of linguistic migration, DNA haplogroups and other socio-cultural transitions render that the Indo-Aryan group was related only to the Vedic culture and not the preceding Harrapan civilization.

13 Comments
  • June 22, 2016

    Loved the article.. I think that they have to glamorize it. But yet, some more attention to detail could have been paid, atleast as a tribute to that era.

    • Ravi
      Reply
      July 9, 2016

      One of the important attention to detail – The stuff- from what is visible from the trailer, does show glimpses of a very important yet unnoticed aspect of Mesopotamian – Sumerian connect with the Indus! The fires at the headgear, the Puabi style coiffure, the neck ornaments, all that is very much researched. The Author of the blog! what say?

  • Surbhi
    Reply
    June 22, 2016

    I think everyone got a bit overboard in this including the designer . Only if they could visit national museum of history in Delhi . Everything is right there in the face . Even some pics of the people of the era , utensil , jewellery – basically tribal stuff some bangles which i remember and a lot of things to look & to take inspiration from . Men were tall usually 7 feet . Definitely dark complexion.
    So fail !!

  • sundeep
    Reply
    June 24, 2016

    This looks so game of thrones Influenced even this girl in the blue costume looks like Daenerys Targaryen, the dragon queen. Come on bollywood have some originality here. This is our own culture.

  • sundeep
    Reply
    June 24, 2016

    This looks so game of thrones Influenced even this girl in the blue costume looks like Daenerys Targaryen, the dragon queen. Come on bollywood have some originality here. This is our own history.

  • Shivangi Aggarwal
    Reply
    June 24, 2016

    An amazing blogpost. Very good research done.

  • Deepa Chauhan
    Reply
    June 25, 2016

    In periodic film they spoile not only the historical facts but also damage the information for future generation..in starting of garment they were not only unstitched drapes but also they were not bifurcated at that early. the color of the fabric is so truely applicable not only for Indus Valley Civilization but also for many ancient civilizations..like in ancient Greek also Purple was reserved for royal people only..thus still purple conceder as royal color.

  • Natarajan
    Reply
    July 13, 2016

    Movie is a movie. If something is not categorically established, let the directors creativity to therive.

  • brintha
    Reply
    August 14, 2016

    Hey ! Good research. Nice that you were able to put down in a clear picture, People who would be researching about it would come across this article and wouldn’t take the movie’s costumes for reference.

  • Prathyush
    Reply
    August 16, 2016

    I would like to study the bone structure study from where ever source you hot, but for linguistics part i must say you are absolutely wrong. We know nothing of Indus valley language and the script is yet to decipher . I must say your linguistic analysis puts a doubt in me, the earliest known linguistic analysis goes to early rigved language which was chandas. The earliest Dravidian literature goes back to 3 century bce only so there is centuries of difference between either of the languages family and Indus valley. What we know about Indus valley is by archeological study not linguistic.. But I would like if you could send me some studies on bones and structure of human there, I would’ve never imagined that I will ask this from fashion blogger but knowledge can come from any source ☺☺

  • September 14, 2016

    I like the Costume!!! Pooja Hegdes Crown i like even more…

  • Vanita M
    Reply
    September 24, 2018

    I think its high time that the gap of costume designer is realized by Bollywood industry. I am sure a costume designer with a qualified research team would at least get the facts for period time movies. DEEPA CHAUHAN I agree with you. The director should use his/her creativity without marring the facts of our history and legacy.

  • Arshad Hayat
    Reply
    September 9, 2020

    It is evident from famous sculpture of the ” Dancing Girl” that she is wearing bangles (like every woman of Sindh, specially Thar region), shockingly no woman was shown in the movie wearing bangles. Another flaw is shaved priest, The sculpture of priest showing a beard person wearing Ajrak. They should at least study the sindhi culture before making the movie.

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