Dress and Jewelry

Balouchi Dress

 

    The Baloch wore a jamag, along shirt, down to heels and loose trousers; a turban, pag and shoes made of leather or sawas, made of palmyra, piss.  The jamag had side pockets.  Like their Aryan ancestors, they always wore white.  In recent times over-coat or waist-coat, kaba, which was usually embroidered in different colours was used by noblemen.  Sal or chadir which was a mark of distinction was used by elderly persons who warped it round the waist and knees, called kabarsani, to sit in a particular position in Balochi diwan. Socks have also been in use.

    Women also wore loose shirts or gowns and trousers.  Primitive women used only a large loose shirt which covered her from neck to the feet and usually did not wear trousers.  The gown was ornamented with a profusion of needle-work of various matching colours.  The shirt had a large front pocket, pandol, near the knees which was also embroidered.  She had a chadir or gusan on the head which also covered the neck and breasts.  Women wore shoes and socks.   Virgin and widows usually wore black jamag; and among some tribes white, without any embroidery, while a married women used various colours, the favorite being red.   The married old women sometimes used black shirt without embroidery.  They did not use any jewelery or ornaments.  If a widow used embroidery , it was a clear indication that she intended to re-marry.

    Men had long hair while the women's long hair was parted in the centre of the forehead.  This separation was called giwar.   The hair was beautifully managed in two and left down back.  Women in some areas used amad, a black tooth paint.  The head was usually bound with a fillet or black stuff or silken cloth.  Tituk or tattooings were made on women's forehead and cheeks, especially of newly married girls.

    In ancient times the customs of burying the dead with garments and ornaments was perhaps the most archaic use of jewelery.   Purely decorative jewelery had existed since the beginning of the Christian era.   The Baloch use of jewelery has close affinity with the Aryan's traced from the archaeological findings.  The primitive Baloch thought that garments or jewelery could ward off evil and protect persons from vicious elements.  Such beliefs also existed among most other people.  The Baloch believed that some evil forces who were in search of opportunity to harm human beings could be checked by the use of jewelery or some metalled articles.  The bridegroom besides his usual ornaments, such as a sword, had some hidden object on his person during, at least, the first night of the marriage.

    The women wore durr (earrings), pulu and pulluk (rings in nose), har or touk (necklace and bracelets), mundrik (rings in hands and foot fingers), sanga or tal (rings around hands), bahuband or bahink (armlets).  Ornaments of various kinds were fixed on the heir including choti-pull, moudi, which are fixed on the hair near the back, and tall which was added to make the hair appear long.