Earlier, Sri was asking about the dress codes of Queens in earlier days. It was an offshoot of our discussion, but still a good lead to start a research.
Sri, if you remember, I said in the discussions that in earlier days even queens never wore upper garments. Thanks to Gokul, who gave his inputs on this during our Tanjai trip. In kumbaonam, I asked Dr.Kudavoil, that if the paintings and sculptures depict the lifestyle of those period, does it mean that women of those days didnt wear any upper garments? Since the discussion was on something else, Gokul said we can discuss later.
The next day, in Tanjai, after seeing the paintings, Gokul said that, probably since our country is hot, people didnt wear much clothes.Male or female wore only a small piece of cloth at their waist and didnt wear anything as upper garment. While seeing the paintings, Dr.KKvn pointed out to the pictures of the queens and commented on a piece of cloth, worn in the form of a upaveetham and said that though they had a cloth in the upper body, it was not to cover the body, but went around the body as a upaveetham(poonal). So the intention was not to cover the upper body, but probably as an ornamental piece.
Gokul, later pointed out to me that, in one of the paintings, it shows some women standing with hands folded with any upper garment. He said, probably they are the Thalichery pendugal, who are waiting for the arrival of rajaraja.
Though much has to be researched on this, the initial finding is that, wearing upper garment was not in practice, in earlier days,probably till the nayaks era or till the entry of europeans into India.