The ancient Sri Lankan female clothing details depicted from selected sculptures

Abstract

Clothes are symbols of the cultural development of any civilization and are classifications of the significant progress made through human behaviors and attitudes. In the past decades “Dress” was considered as “walking sculpture” because it revealed the whole process through which social and cultural transformation took place. Hence, the attire of traditional Sri Lankan designs, ideally, should have values and concepts. The sculptures were the visual facts that depict earlier female clothing precisely. Every sculpture represents the prevailing status of the era in which it was constructed. This paper is going to be discussing female clothing design elements from the Anuradhapura era to the end of the Nineteenth Century. The problem identification was based on how female clothing has evolved and developed over time. The examination of past sculptures is beneficial when articulating past Sri Lankan women’s clothing elements thoroughly as live visuals. The aim of this paper is to identify and observe design details and elements of past female attire. The methodology, which has been used collect data, is the qualitative method. To gather the necessary data the Researcher visited museums, temples, the cultural triangle and ancient cities and observed and gathered information as primary data as well as used books and electronic journals as secondary data. The results depicted that the women who lived in the Anuradhapura’ era to end of the Nineteenth Century, used limited dress designs sparingly, especially for the upper part of the body which was commonly covered by c jewelry And the lower part of the body was covered by draping a single cloth. Their clothing was sparingly simple and differed according to their caste, family status and creed. Jewelry was the main attraction of ladies in the past and not the different clothing styles as in contemporary women’s fashion.