Dress and textiles

PataniRajbanshi women

A single length of cotton wrapped from the chest or waist and knotted, worn shorter than a Bengali sari because the work is in water and mud. Older women still wear it in the villages; younger women wear the sari and keep the patani for ritual.

Worn for: Everyday and ceremonial

DokhonaMech (Bodo-Kachari) women

A tubular wrap tied above the chest, woven at home in bands of colour with the dominant motif set into the weave rather than printed. The loom stands in the house, and a woman's weaving is part of what she brings to a marriage.

Worn for: Everyday and festival

Panchi and parhanSanthal and other Adivasi women

The two-piece white cotton with a red or blue border — one cloth wrapped below, one across the shoulder — worn with sal or palash flowers in the hair at festival dances.

Worn for: Festival, especially Sarhul and Karam

Dhoti, gamchha and half-shirtMen across the Rajbanshi and Adivasi villages

A short-wrapped dhoti or lungi with a gamchha over the shoulder — used as towel, headpad, sling and filter, which is why it is never actually put down.

Worn for: Everyday

Plucking dressGarden workers, overwhelmingly women

Sari hitched to mid-calf, a plastic sheet over the shoulders through the monsoon, and the conical cane basket carried on the back from a strap across the forehead so both hands are free. It is the most-seen garment in the region and is almost never described as dress.

Worn for: Working day

Daura-suruwal and chaubandi choloNepali-speaking families of the Terai and the garden fringes

The hill dress worn on the plain at Dasain and Tihar, unchanged in cut from the villages up the slope.

Worn for: Festival

Bodo and Mech household weavingAlipurduar and Jalpaiguri forest fringe

Cotton and eri woven on a throw-shuttle loom in every household, producing dokhona, aronai scarves and shawls with geometric and floral bands built into the weave. The output is for the family, not for a market, which is why the designs stayed local.

Rajbanshi cotton gamcha and pataniJalpaiguri and the western Dooars

Coarse handloom cotton in checks and stripes, woven on pit looms in village clusters. The same cloth is towel, turban, sling and ritual offering depending on how it is folded.

SitalpatiThe Rajbanshi belt of the western Dooars and Cooch Behar

Mats split and woven from the outer skin of the mutha cane, graded by how fine the split is — the best are cool to the touch and flexible enough to roll into a tube. Applications for geographical-indication protection have been pursued for the Cooch Behar mats.